India keen to expand trade with Russia despite US tariff tirade

New Delhi: Notwithstanding United States President Donald Trump’s tariff tirade against New Delhi, India on Wednesday expressed its keenness to expand and diversify its bilateral commerce with Russia to reach the annual target of $100 billion by 2030 but stressed that the issue of growing trade imbalance must be addressed urgently.

Russia underlined its willingness to export Liquefied Natural Gas to India, in addition to oil. The former Soviet Union nation expressed its keenness to expand cooperation with India in the nuclear energy sector, building on the success of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant in Tamil Nadu. New Delhi and Moscow noted that the share of payments between Russia and India in national currencies had exceeded 90 per cent.

New Delhi on Wednesday also finalised the Terms of Reference for the proposed Free Trade Agreement between India and the Eurasia Economic Union – a bloc comprising Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and the Kyrgyz Republic – on Wednesday. India’s annual trade with the Eurasian Economic Union had gone up by 7 per cent to reach $69 billion in 2024.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar met Russian Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov in Moscow. They jointly co-chaired the 26th session of the India-Russia Inter-Governmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technological and Cultural Cooperation (IRIGC-TEC). Jaishankar will have a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Thursday.

“Our bilateral trade in goods has increased, as you have noted, more than five-fold from $13 billion in 2021 to $68 billion in 2024-25, and it continues to grow,” Jaishankar told Manturov. “However, a major trade imbalance has accompanied the growth; it has increased from $6.6 billion to $58.9 billion, which is about nine times. So, we need to address that urgently," he added.

The meeting between Jaishankar and Manturov took place just about a fortnight after Trump imposed an additional 25 per cent tariff, in addition to 25 per cent imposed a few days earlier, on all exports from India to the US. The move was in response to India’s continued purchase of oil from Russia, defying the sanctions imposed by the US and the rest of the West on Russia to make it stop its war in Ukraine, which had been launched in February 2022.

During the meeting with Jaishankar, Manturov noted that Russia continued to ship fuel, including crude oil and oil products, thermal and coking coal, to India and saw potential for the export of LNG too.

Jaishankar’s meeting with Lavrov on Thursday will set the stage for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s annual summit with President Vladimir Putin in New Delhi later this year.

"If the West criticises you, it means you are doing everything right...We don't expect that to happen (India to stop buying oil from India). We know about the challenging circumstances for India. This is the true strategic partnership we are enjoying. Whatever happens, even during challenges, we are committed to removing any problems,” Roman Babushkin, Russia’s acting envoy to India, told journalists in New Delhi.