Despite the fact that the Russian-Indian trade is increasing, it is still below its potential, and New Delhi thus seeks to enhance its trade ties with Russia and raise investment above the current level, Indian Ambassador to Russia D. Bala Venkatesh Varma told Sputnik
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 04th December, 2018) Despite the fact that the Russian-Indian trade is increasing, it is still below its potential, and New Delhi thus seeks to enhance its trade ties with Russia and raise investment above the current level, Indian Ambassador to Russia D. Bala Venkatesh Varma told Sputnik.
"Investments and bilateral trade is increasing. We have a trade of more than $10 billion, but it is well below potential and we intend to increase it. Investments have already reached a very good level of more than $30 billion and we wish to increase it even further," the ambassador said.
The diplomat stressed that India was one of the world's fastest growing economies and that it was interested in the presence of Russian businesspeople in the country's market.
"We intend to deepen our cooperation in the digital economy, in Russian participation in infrastructure development in India, we want to increase agro exports," the ambassador indicated.
The diplomat also praised the role of international forums and summits in the development of economic ties between the two states.
"We expect a very good participation of Russian business at the Vibrant Gujarat meeting [Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit 2019, India's biennial investor summit] in January next year. It is held in Ahmedabad. So overall the picture is very bright, but that is not a surprise in India-Russia relations. India and Russia have been fortunate to have had friendly relations for over 70 years," the ambassador underlined.
Indian-Russian relations have recently been developing very fast in a wide range of fields, from defense to science. On November 25-26, the first Russia-India Strategic Dialogue was held in the Russian city of St. Petersburg. The forum's key event was a plenary session featuring Russian Economic Development Minister Maxim Oreshkin and Vice Chairperson of the National Institution for Transforming India Dr. Rajiv Kumar.
