India and Russia have set a target of $100 billion in annual trade volume by 2030 and vowed to develop a robust bilateral payment settlement mechanism using national currencies.
Key points
- At present, the bilateral trade stands at about $67 billion.
- To get to the $100 billion bilateral trade by 2030, India is looking to address the wide trade gap with Russia, by addressing issues of market access faced by its exporters, widening the basket of goods and exploring wider exchanges in local currencies.
- India runs a huge trade deficit with Russia. In 2023-24, trade between the two countries touched $65 billion, of which India’s exports were just $4 billion and imports $61.4 billion.
- One reason for the widening of the trade deficit is the jump in India’s imports of crude oil from Russia.
- India is also looking to deal with the Non Trade Barriers (NBT) that Indian marine exporters face in Russia.
- India is also looking at markets in products in Russia where there has been disruption in imports due to sanctions and Rupee-Rouble trade.
