India is well-positioned to benefit significantly from Russia’s pivot to Asia in the last two years, experts have shared with Sputnik India.
Kumar underscored the fact that
Russian crude exports to India, which averaged 1.80 million barrels per day (bpd) in last month (Kpler), have helped in securing a windfall for Indian refiners amid global volatility in markets in the wake of Ukraine and Gaza conflicts.
“In approximate terms, Indian refiners have saved $7-$10 billion due to importing Russian oil at discounted prices despite energy market volatility,” the JNU professor stated.
Even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Vladimir Putin set a trade turnover target of $100 billion by 2030, Kumar emphasised that a joint priority now was to address the issue of “trade imbalance” by bolstering Indian exports to Russia.
According to data of Russian oil and coal exports from December 2022 to April 2024, nearly 35% of Moscow’s outgoing shipments were bought by Indian entities. As far as India’s concerned, Russia has emerged as its biggest crude supplier since last year, accounting for 30-40% of its energy imports. In terms of coal, Russian exports, mainly the coking coal variety, to India have surged by nearly 300% in the last three years.
Further, as
highlighted by Modi during his recent meeting with Putin at the Kremlin in July, Russian fertilizer exports have helped in ensuring food and fertilizer security in India, where agriculture is the largest employer.
Continued availability of energy resources and agricultural inputs is deemed as being critical for India to sustain its trajectory of clocking 6-8% annual GDP growth, in a bid to become the world's third biggest economy by 2030.
Dr Ankit Shah, a foreign policy expert and author, told Sputnik India that increased participation of Russian investors in Bharat’s (India) growth story, particularly in crucial domains like defence, would benefit both the countries.
"Other areas of mutual interest would be joint exploration and mining projects in the Russian Far-East and the Arctic region and ramping up Russian LNG exports,” Shah said.
He also underlined the importance of further strengthening of people-to-people linkages between the two nations to bolster overall ties.
Further, the geoeconomic expert said that bilaterally as well in the BRICS framework, the governments should redouble efforts towards floating a payments platform outside the purview of the SWIFT network.
“Such a platform would not only avoid the sanctions threat, but also reduce costs incurred on transactions and exchange,” he said.
Commenting on New Delhi and Moscow’s common goal to establish a multipolar world order, Shah reckoned that Moscow had a “considerable role” to play in
increasing understanding between China and Bharat through platforms such as BRICS, Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and RIC (Russia-India-China).
In the same vein, he expressed confidence that the global economic centre of gravity would move towards the Eurasia in coming years, as indicated by the rise of BRICS
“A lot of price-setting of commodities and international trade will take place through Eurasian centres such as GIFT City, Moscow and Shanghai,” the expert forecast.
Further, he stated that India’s presence in BRICS and SCO had increased these groupings’ appeal for other developing states.