Amid western sanctions on Moscow for its special military operations in Ukraine, Russia and India look forward to boosting their bilateral trade and strengthening ties eyeing the larger Eurasian zone comprising 93 countries and a collective population of 5.4bn people. India and Russia’s trade cooperation will also aim to break the dollar monopoly in foreign trade, which can potentially deliver a strong blow to the US hegemony in the world.
Recently, to boost India and Russia’s trade cooperation, the Roscongress Foundation of Russia and the Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) jointly organised an event called ‘Russia-India Business Forum: Strategic Partnership for Development and Growth’ in New Delhi. The event aims at boosting the bilateral trade between India and Russia to $50bn this year from $31bn last year.
Politicians, diplomats, technocrats, and business personalities from both countries attended this two-day event held on Wednesday and Thursday, March 29th and March 30th. The participants discussed various options for increasing India and Russia’s trade cooperation and utilising the opportunity provided by the “ineffective” western sanctions on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government.
Among the Russian panellists, Andrey Bezrukov, Technological Sovereignty Exports Association’s president, and Sergey Cheryomin, Chairman of the Board of the Business Council for Cooperation with India, spoke about how the two countries that share a long history of bilateral cooperation should take up the opportunities provided by changing geopolitical realities and the collapse of the western order.
Bezrukov reportedly expressed optimism about the prospect of opening new trade corridors in central Asia, with the help of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), one of the largest global bodies outside the United Nations. Bezrukov emphasised utilising the opportunities to speed up economic development and secure the energy requirements of both India and Russia.
Cheryomin underscored the importance of shattering the western monopoly over high-tech. He criticised what he called the “western colonialism in digital packaging” and urged India and Russia to seize the opportunity provided by the crisis that has unfolded in the western technology industry leading to mass layoffs by US-based tech giants.
“It’s an ideal scenario for Russia and India to collaborate in the IT sector. Russia holds an edge in developing indigenous technology while India has been traditionally low on research and development in IT. A joint collaboration could be a game-changer,” Russia Today quoted Cheryomin.
Looking into various opportunities to help boost India and Russia’s trade cooperation, the panellists stressed greater cooperation in the fields of artificial intelligence (AI) and achieving technological sovereignty by creating common products. The speakers also highlighted the achievements of Moscow’s smart city project and expressed optimism that India can very well emulate them to provide better quality living standards to its city dwellers.
The event also discussed how collaboration in the fields of telemedicine and digital healthcare could work as a growth catalyst in boosting India and Russia’s trade cooperation. They said that both countries are discussing the procurement of active ingredients for healthcare products, innovative drug development, and implementation of nuclear medicine technologies.
This event to boost India and Russia’s trade cooperation was organised as a part of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum’s foreign events programme, which aims at strengthening Russia’s ties with its traditional allies. Incidentally, despite sharing cordial relationships with the US and the West, India has refused to join their anti-Russia bandwagon over Ukraine.
