Russia opens up its Far East & Arctic region for trade, investment to India

New Delhi: India and Russia have confirmed their readiness to intensify trade and investment cooperation in the latter’s Far East and the Arctic zone, according to a joint statement issued on Friday after the meeting here between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Vladimir Putin.

The Programme of India-Russia Cooperation in Trade, Economic and Investment Spheres in the Russian Far East for the period from 2024-2029 provides the necessary framework for further cooperation between India and the Russian Far East region, especially in the sectors of agriculture, energy, mining, manpower, diamonds, pharmaceuticals, and maritime transport.

Both sides underscored the importance of holding regular bilateral consultations on Arctic-related issues and welcomed the progress made in multifaceted bilateral cooperation on the Northern Sea Route.

The Russian side appreciated the participation of the Indian delegation in the 6th International Arctic Forum held in Murmansk in March 2025. The Indian side expressed its readiness to play an active role as an observer in the Arctic Council.

The two sides also agreed to deepen cooperation in building stable and efficient transport corridors, with the focus on expanding logistics links for improving connectivity and enhancing infrastructure capacity to support the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC), the Chennai–Vladivostok (Eastern Maritime) Corridor, and the Northern Sea Route. They welcomed the signing of the MoU on the Training of Specialists for Ships Operating in Polar Waters.

The two sides noted the fruitful cooperation between the railways of Russia and India, aimed at establishing partnerships in the field of mutually beneficial technology exchange.

The two countries also underlined the importance of an open, inclusive, transparent and non-discriminatory multilateral trade system with the World Trade Organisation at its core.

Both sides emphasised that addressing tariff and non-tariff trade barriers, removing bottlenecks in logistics, promoting connectivity, ensuring smooth payment mechanisms, finding mutually acceptable solutions for issues of insurance and reinsurance and regular interaction between the businesses of the two countries are among the key elements for timely achievement of the revised bilateral trade target of $100 billion by 2030, the joint statement added.

IANS