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India, Russia aim for $30 bn bilateral trade by 2025: Russian diplomat
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SME Times News Bureau | 19 Jun, 2018
India and Russia are setting a target for $30 billion in bilateral trade
by 2025 and the two countries are working towards developing a Free
Trade Agreement (FTA) to facilitate that target, a Russian diplomat said
here on Monday.
"India and Russia have set a bilateral trade
target of $30 billion by 2025. This includes the sales of defence
equipment, civil nuclear energy apart from other commodities," Russian
Consul General in Kolkata Alexey M. Idamkin said at a session on the
current and future perspectives of Russia-India relations at the Bharat
Chamber of Commerce here.
"That bilateral trade volume, that saw
some decline till 2016, has witnessed a steady growth in 2017 and
exceeded the mark of $8 billion which is 21 per cent higher than the
previous year," he said.
Referring to the geographical factor
that has been a principal hurdle in developing the trade relationship
between the two countries in spite of their long-standing diplomatic
relationship, he said that the International North-South Transport
Corridor, a multi-modal network of ship, rail, and road route for moving
freight between India, Iran, Azerbaijan, Russia and certain European
countries has a chance of starting within the next couple of years.
"The
North-South corridor would go through Iran and central Asia and it
might have connection with some of the European countries. The nodal
port will be certain Iranian ports like Chabahar to cut short the
distance. Some test containers were sent successfully. It is not yet
operational but it has a good potential to start in the near future. May
be in a couple of years," Idamkin said.
He said India and Russia
are working together in research, development and production of
advanced defence systems which is ably aided by India's 'Make In India'
initiative, that provides unlimited opportunities of engagement between
the Russian companies and India's private defence manufacturers.
"In
the pipeline are one of the best air defence systems, the fifth
generation fighter jet project and the Kamov 226T helicopters which will
also be produced under the Make In India initiative. One part of it is
going to be exported from Russia while majority of it will be built in
India. The other initiatives like Project 75I-class submarine and
refuelling tankers are also on the way," he said.
Idamkin also
said the possibility of a maritime corridor between India's Chennai and
Russia's Vladivostok is being discussed at an official level and has
support from both the governments.
However, he refused to give a specific time frame about when the project will commence.
Asked
about the impact of US-China trade conflict based on tariffs on Russian
economy, he said it would hardly affect Russia as the country's economy
is robust and has been growing at a stable rate in recent years.
"I
feel the Russian economy is robust enough to withstand all form of
international commotion that may occur in the world economy. A trade war
is not the best thing for the world economy. However, I do not see any
danger to the Russian economy which is quiet stable since the last year.
Though the projected growth is not very high, the growth rate is quite
stable," he added.
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Customs Exchange Rates |
Currency |
Import |
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US Dollar
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66.20
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64.50 |
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87.50
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84.65 |
Euro
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78.25
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75.65 |
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56.85 |
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