India has reaffirmed the potential for expanding and deepening trade with Russia and proposed confidence-building measures to further unlock market access.

Towards this shared goal, Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal met Vladimir Ilyichev, Deputy Minister of Economic Development of the Russian Federation, for the 26th meeting of the India-Russia Working Group on Trade and Economic Cooperation, under the aegis of the Inter-Governmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technological and Cultural Cooperation (IRIGC), in Moscow.

According to a Commerce Ministry statement, the two sides reviewed bilateral trade, which has risen to well over twice the leaders’ 2014 benchmark of $25 billion, and took note of the shared objective of $100 billion by 2030.

A forward looking protocol for trade and economic cooperation across multiple sectors was finalised and signed during the meeting, the ministry informed.

The issues included expedited listing of Indian establishments and a systems-based approach with the Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Supervision of Russia (FSVPS) in agriculture, especially marine products and a time-bound pathway in pharmaceuticals covering registration, regulatory reliance, and predictable timelines.

Moreover, the Working Group noted the potential cooperation for expansion of trade across engineering goods, chemicals and plastics, electronics, pharmaceuticals, agriculture, leather, and textiles, and mapped Indian product strengths in engineering goods, smartphones, motor vehicles, gems and jewellery, organic chemicals, textiles, and leather sector that can support Russia’s trade de-risking and diversification.

In the services sector, the Indian side encouraged greater procurement of Indian IT-BPM, healthcare, education, and creative services by Russian entities, alongside predictable mobility for Indian professionals to meet the labour shortages in the Russian market.

India’s Global Capability Centre (GCC) ecosystem, around 45 per cent of global GCCs, with over 1,700 centres employing nearly 1.9 million professionals, was presented as a ready platform for Russian companies to strengthen business continuity, cybersecurity, design and analytics, and shared services, enhancing resilience in both goods and services supply chains.

Both sides also agreed to explore payments solutions to meet the needs for businesses, especially medium, small and micro enterprises.