Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid an official visit to the Russia. He and President Putin held extensive and substantive discussions to review progress in bilateral relations since the last Annual Summit and their meeting on the margins of the BRICS Summit in Ufa in July 2015.
Reflecting their continued emphasis on further enhancing bilateral economic and commercial relations, President Putin and Prime Minister Modi jointly addressed CEOs of leading Russian and Indian companies.
A number of important agreements in diverse fields of bilateral cooperation, including several commercial agreements between Russian and Indian companies, were signed during the visit.
Prime Minister Modi also addressed a gathering of Friends of India including members of the Indian community in Russia.
The Leaders welcomed continued parliamentary exchanges, especially the visit of the Speaker of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, Mr. Sergey Naryshkin to India in February 2015 for the Russia-India Inter-Parliamentary Commission.
Trade and Investment Cooperation
The Sides welcomed the agreement reached on liberalization of the travel regime for the businessmen of both States and called for its effective implementation.
The Sides welcomed the outcomes of the twenty first meeting of the Russian-Indian Intergovernmental Commission (IGC) on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technological and Cultural Cooperation held in Moscow on October 20, 2015, as well as the decisions of various working groups of the Commission, particularly on trade and economic cooperation, modernization and industrial cooperation.
They noted that the joint working group on priority investment projects, which held its third meeting in Moscow in October 2015, had identified several projects and called for early finalization of relevant proposals.
Both Sides reiterated their assessment that the “Make in India” initiative provides a new and durable framework for engagement by Russian corporate entities in the fast growing Indian economy as well as noted the efforts made by the Indian Government to improve ease of doing business.
The Sides welcomed recent announcement of several major bilateral investment proposals and called on companies in both countries to finalize new and ambitious investment proposals in promising sectors such as oil and gas, pharmaceuticals, chemical industry, mining, machine building, implementation of infrastructure projects, cooperation in railway sector, fertilizer production, automobiles and aircraft construction as well as collaborative ventures in modernizing each other’s industrial facilities.
They welcomed enhanced interactions between representatives of the business community of Russia and India including the CEOs level interaction during the summit as well as during large trade and business events such as the Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum and the Eastern Economic Forum.
They called for continuation of such interactions and noted that India’s participation as a partner country in the International Industrial Exhibition INNOPROM 2016 would emphasize the recognized authority of the event as one of the most representative among international events in the field of industry, scientific and technological innovations.
Russia’s participation as partner country in India Engineering Sourcing Show 2017 could impart added momentum to bilateral economic relations.
The Sides welcomed the successful launch of the Joint Study Group to consider the feasibility of a free trade agreement between the Republic of India and the Member States of the Eurasian Economic Union and the first meeting of the Study Group in Moscow on 31 July 2015. The Sides supported early finalization of a draft Joint Study Group report.
The Sides attach great importance to exploring new multi-modal connectivity between their economies to facilitate the movement of bulk goods and commodities as well as trade between the two countries.
In this context, they welcomed increased emphasis on implementation of the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC), and noted that several meetings including the Stakeholders Meeting, INSTC Council, Expert Level meetings and a meeting of customs agencies had been held over the past few months.
They stressed that the INSTC can play a key role in promoting economic integration in the region stretching from the Indian Ocean to the Baltic Sea by creating new centers of growth as well as joint industrial and infrastructure facilities.
The Sides noted that Customs authorities of the two countries had created legal mechanisms for implementing the Green Corridor arrangement and plan to soon launch it in a test mode.
The Sides welcomed initiatives to promote direct trade in diamonds between Russia and India, including the increased number of Indian resident companies signing long-term rough diamonds supply contracts with PJSC ALROSA from 9 in 2014 to 12 in 2015.
Both Sides also welcomed the creation of a Special Notified Zone (SNZ) at the Bharat Diamond Bourse and the start of diamond viewing by ALROSA Group on its premises. They agreed to further promote the development of SNZ and its rough diamond auctions mechanism.
The Sides welcomed the positive outcome of engagements between the phytosanitary and veterinary authorities of both the countries to finalize mutual market access for agricultural and processed food products, including dairy products, which were a new and promising area for development and diversification of bilateral trade.
They agreed to continue ongoing consultations between their regulatory authorities and introduce measures to widen the range of such products for bilateral trade.
The Sides noted developing cooperation between Russian and Indian commercial banks and an existing scope for its further expansion.
Taking into account the important role of banks in settlement of bilateral trade and investment contracts, the Sides express hope for the enhancement by commercial banks of the two countries of their partnership, including establishment of correspondent relations and increasing lending limits.
The Sides welcomed the ongoing work, coordinated by the two central banks to promote the use of national currencies in mutual trade and called for continued concerted engagement by relevant regulatory institutions and commercial entities to further facilitate and enhance such trade settlements.
Analysis:
The Sides reaffirmed the unique character of Russia-India relations, based on time-tested and deep mutual trust and friendship between the two nations.
They noted with satisfaction the continued support among the people of both countries to further strengthen and expand the bilateral relationship.
They emphasized the remarkable convergence in their foreign policy priorities and underlined the significance of their special and privileged strategic partnership for their respective countries both bilaterally and in addressing regional and global issues in the days ahead.