India Russia Inter Governmental Commission Meet

The 22nd Indo-Russia Inter Governmental Commission meeting was held in New Delhi which were co-chaired by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin.

During the meeting, India and Russia launched a working group for creating an “energy bridge” for a possible direct gas delivery from Russia and also directed their concerned ministries to finalise “concrete outcomes” in key areas of trade and investment by the next month’s summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Both sides launched an industry level Working Group – led by Gazprom, biggest Russian gas company, and a consortium of Indian oil and gas companies- for creating an ‘energy bridge’ between the two countries through possible gas pipelines for direct gas delivery from Russia to India.

The Commission also directed concerned Ministries and departments to focus on key sectors in the trade and investment spheres to finalise concrete outcomes by the forthcoming summit in October 2016.

Indian and Russian oil and gas companies are working towards finalisation of investments in each other’s countries.

India and Russia reiterated their strong desire to further broaden their strategic cooperation with emphasis on key sectors such as nuclear energy, space, modernisation, high technology, disaster management, and supercomputing.