Indian Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra has said India and Russia are working on strengthening the movement of capital between the two economies in an effort to bolster trade and investment ties.
“We are also working on capital movement across the two economies. The first-ever India-Russia investment forum was held in Moscow in April this year. We look forward to strengthen these trends, encourage and promote technology, trade and investments partnerships between the two countries,” Kwatra said during a keynote address at the Russian National Day reception at the Russian Embassy in New Delhi.
Kwatra said that both the governments were involved in efforts to further bolster the bilateral trade turnover, which hit an all-time high last fiscal.
“Bilateral trade today stands at roughly around $65 billion, which is an exponential increase in volumes of trade over previous years. We continue to look forward to find more avenues of building on the trade growth in a sustainable manner,” the senior Indian diplomat said.
Kwatra further said in his address that seeking “seamless and cross-effective connectivity” has become a priority for both the nations, stressing the importance of the International North South Transport Corridor (INSTC).
“We are working on the development of the Eastern Economic Corridor, which will significantly reduce time required to transport the cargo between India and Russian Far-East,” he stated.
Kwatra highlighted that both the countries have a “very rich schedule of system-level engagements” in coming months, adding that this would provide a “good, strong template for continuation of high-level engagements”.
“In case of India and Russia, we are also privileged that the leadership on both sides have been very clear and consistent in their support and guidance for the progress in special and strategic privileged partnership between our two countries,” Kwatra said.
The senior Indian diplomat described India-Russia ties as a “significant contributor to a degree of stability in an otherwise turbulent world”.
He said that the ties have not only withstood the test of time, but also shown “remarkable growth and resilience”.
Russian Ambassador Expresses ‘Unwavering Commitment’ to Further Strengthen Ties with India
Addressing the National Day reception, Russian Ambassador to India, Denis Alipov, re-affirmed Moscow’s “unwavering commitment to friendship and comprehensive development of the special and privileged strategic partnership with India”.
He said that Russia was open to “transfer of technologies” to India to further bolster cooperation.
Alipov further underscored the “consistent enhancement of Russia’s role in global affairs amid the emergence of a multipolar world order”.
In spite of western sanctions, Russia had emerged as the world’s fourth-largest economy in terms of Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) last year, he said.
Further, he stated that setting up an “independent payments system” was a priority of Russia’s ongoing BRICS presidency.