New Delhi, Apr. 19: India and Russia on Tuesday agreed to unlock full potential of bilateral trade and economic relationship.

The Indian Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement that the 24th India-Russia Inter-governmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technological and Cultural Cooperation was held in New Delhi on April 17-18.

Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Trade and Industry of Russia Denis Manturov, who arrived in Indian capital Monday heading a high-level delegation comprising senior officials from several Russian ministries co-chaired the 24th session of the Inter-governmental commission.

The two sides reviewed bilateral trade and economic relationship, and agreed to work together to unlock its full potential.

The Inter-governmental Commission, which is a mechanism for monitoring bilateral progress of trade and economic cooperation between the two countries, agreed to address the trade deficit and market access issues.

The visiting Russian deputy PM also met Indian Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval.

The India-Russia Business Dialogue was also held on Monday with participation of key businesses from both the countries enabling Jaishankar, Manturov and business leaders to “engage and drive the momentum of shared priorities of deeper and wider bilateral commercial cooperation.”

Though Indian authorities claim that the visit is in continuation of the regular high-level dialogue between the two nations, it assumes greater importance as New Delhi’s closer ties with Russia even while the latter is engaged in a bloody battle in Ukraine is seen with caution in western capitals.

India has so far resisted Western pressure to condemn Russian aggression and instead expressed concern over the humanitarian crisis arising out of the war and called to resolve all differences through dialogue and diplomatic means.

Jaishankar has said that discussions are on over the payments issue with Russia, referring to the trade in local currencies (rupee-ruble).

“There are discussions on the payments issue under the scheme of international trade settlement in Indian rupees through the special rupee vostro account system.

“And I think the payments issue clearly needs to be worked through between our systems. It is something we will be discussing,” said Jaishankar at the India-Russia Business Dialogue.

The event was organized by the Ministry of External Affairs in partnership with FICCI and the Business Council for Cooperation with India (BCCI). India and Russia have a Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership.

“For the period between April 2022 and February 2023, bilateral trade was about $45 billion and is expected to grow,” Jaishankar added.

Russia has said that within the framework of the inter-governmental dialogue, they propose to consider the possibility of the wide use of national currencies.

Meanwhile, Russia also wants to take its partnership with India to another level by having a Free Trade Agreement (FTA).

“Together with the Eurasian Economic Commission, we are looking forward to intensifying negotiations on the FTA with India.

“Additionally, we are working on signing the Russia-India Bilateral Agreement for the Promotion and Protection of Investments,” said Manturov.

To protect the principles of free trade, Russia has undertaken a set of measures which includes permitting import of original goods without consent of the rights’ owners from unfriendly countries — so-called parallel imports.

“Besides, we’ve launched the program of preferential loans and insurance of Russian importers towards procurement of priority products from foreign countries.

“Among the most demanded goods under this program are components and equipment for road construction, products of chemical and pharmaceutical industries. I am sure that this will create opportunities for Indian companies to increase their supplies to Russia,” Manturov added.

Russia has also invited Indian companies who are keen on joint projects to consider ‘cluster investment platform’.

“This provides preferential credits for designing and manufacturing of priority products, subsidies for pilot batches of goods, insurance premium and income tax preferences.

“As far as certain components and technologies are concerned we will definitely rely on trusted foreign partners. We are working in this manner with our Indian friends for decades,” Manturov added.

Marupov also met National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and discussed a wide range of issues under the India-Russia Strategic Partnership.-Agencies