Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday directed their officials to accelerate negotiations on a “mutually beneficial” agreement for the promotion and protection of investments, with the matter taking centre stage during their summit meeting in New Delhi.A joint statement said the leaders also underscored both the current and future scope of cooperation in the energy sector, while appreciating the intensifying work toward a free trade agreement on goods between India and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), PTI reported.
“They also directed both sides to intensify efforts in negotiations on a mutually beneficial agreement on the promotion and protection of investments,” the statement said.India and the EAEU held the first round of talks on the FTA last week after signing the terms of reference in August. The EAEU comprises Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.Modi and Putin agreed to expand bilateral trade “in a balanced and sustainable manner,” including by boosting India’s exports to Russia. Goods trade touched nearly USD 70 billion last fiscal, heavily tilted towards Moscow due to India’s crude oil imports, leaving New Delhi with a USD 59-billion deficit.Both sides stressed the need to address tariff and non-tariff barriers, remove logistics bottlenecks, improve connectivity, ensure smooth payment systems, and resolve insurance and reinsurance issues to meet the revised USD 100-billion trade target by 2030.“Russia and India have agreed to continue jointly developing systems of bilateral settlements through the use of national currencies in order to ensure the uninterrupted maintenance of bilateral trade,” the statement said.On energy cooperation, the leaders commended the “wide-ranging partnership” spanning oil and oil products, refining and petrochemical technologies, oilfield services, upstream technologies and infrastructure, and LNG and LPG-related projects.They also agreed to deepen collaboration on transport corridors, including the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC), the Chennai-Vladivostok maritime link and the Northern Sea Route, aiming to strengthen logistics connectivity and infrastructure.Both sides also welcomed the signing of an MoU on training specialists for ships operating in polar waters.
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