New Delhi: India and Russia have set an ambitious target of achieving US$100 billion in bilateral trade by 2030, with a special focus on the marine and pharmaceutical sectors. The announcement came during the 26th India-Russia Inter-Governmental Commission (IRIGC) meeting, where both sides reviewed progress in trade and signed a forward-looking cooperation protocol.
The meeting, attended by India’s Commerce Ministry officials and Russia’s Deputy Minister of Economic Development Vladimir Ilyichev, highlighted the need to expedite approvals for Indian establishments in Russia. Areas of discussion included a systems-based approach with Russia’s FSVPS in agriculture, time-bound pathways for pharmaceutical registrations, regulatory reliance, and predictable timelines.
Bilateral trade has already more than doubled since the 2014 benchmark of US$25 billion. Both sides explored opportunities across engineering goods, chemicals, plastics, electronics, pharmaceuticals, agriculture, leather, and textiles. Indian strengths in smartphones, motor vehicles, gems and jewellery, organic chemicals, textiles, and leather were identified as key enablers to support Russia’s trade diversification and de-risking strategy.
India encouraged Russian entities to increase procurement of IT-BPM, healthcare, education, and creative services from India. Predictable mobility for Indian professionals was highlighted to address labor shortages in the Russian market. India’s Global Capability Centre (GCC) ecosystem, with over 1,700 centres employing nearly 1.9 million professionals, was presented as a platform for Russian companies to strengthen business continuity, cybersecurity, design, analytics, and shared services.
The Russian side expressed interest in concluding a bilateral investment treaty. Both nations also agreed to explore payment solutions to facilitate business transactions, particularly for medium, small, and micro enterprises, further enhancing the resilience of trade and supply chains in goods and services.
