India seeks to boost exports to Russia after Modi trip

NEW DELHI: India is exploring ways to boost its exports to Russia, including by encouraging rupee-rouble trade and pushing Moscow to lift non-tariff barriers, New Delhi said on Monday, in the wake of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Moscow.

Old partners India and Russia have stepped up trade since Russia invaded Ukraine in early 2022, but the increase has been overwhelmingly one-way, dominated by India buying Russian oil shunned by traditional customers in Europe.

Surging Russian exports to India accounted for $61.43 billion of the $65.7 billion in trade between the two countries in the last fiscal year that ended in March.

While trade between the two countries was up a third on the year before, India’s exports of pharmaceuticals, machinery and other goods to Russia have barely budged.

In a news conference, Indian trade secretary Sunil Barthwal said the government had asked Russia to consider changes to some non-tariff barriers on Indian exports of marine food products.

New Delhi is also encouraging rupee-rouble trade that has failed to take off, and would send a trade delegation, he said, without giving further details.

“When we are looking at Russia, we are looking at how both the countries can gain by better trade relationships,” he told the press conference. “We are looking at various sets of commodities for example electronics, engineering goods and other items where there can be exports.”

New Delhi and Moscow have been trying to settle more trade in roubles and rupees since the war led to sanctions on Russian entities. But such settlements have not taken off because the Indian currency is not among the most transacted in the world and Russia does not want to amass it.

During Modi’s visit to Russia last week, which coincided with a missile strike on a children’s hospital in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv that killed dozens, the Indian leader told Russian President Vladimir Putin that the death of innocent children was painful and terrifying. Russia has denied responsibility.

Russia and India also outlined nine key areas for closer cooperation, ranging from nuclear energy to medicine, and said they aimed to boost bilateral trade to hit $100 billion by 2030.

Washington has criticised New Delhi for maintaining close ties with Moscow. A U.S. State Department spokesperson said: “we have made quite clear directly with India our concerns about their relationship with Russia”.