Ambassador Vinay Kumar, India’s Envoy to Russia in conversation with Nitin A. Gokhale, Founder and Editor in Chief of StratNews Global, Bharat Shakti and Interstellar.news. The envoy speaks to Nitin in Kazan, Russia just before the BRICS Summit and other bilaterals.
India-Russia Relations
“India-Russia Relations have been expanding within the framework of the Special Privileged Strategic Partnership that the two countries have,” Ambassador Kumar says. On trade, he points out, “In the last few years, trade volume increased significantly, reaching almost $65 billion a year. That trend continues. In July, when the Prime Minister visited Moscow for the annual summit, the leaders set a target of $100 billion by 2030. Since then, we have had a number of joint working group meetings. And steps have been taken to resolve the issues…and facilitate trade settlement in national currencies”.
India-Russia Defence Ties
On India-Russia defence ties, Ambassador Kumar says, they are “not only as robust as they were, but also expanding. One of the agreements that was signed when Prime Minister Modi visited Vladivostok in 2019 was the manufacturing of components for Russian systems that we use in India. And so that is transforming the buyer-seller relationship to joint work. To joint production, joint design and co-production. I see this relationship expanding and transforming.”
Ambassador Vinay Kumar discusses:
- India-Russia trade relations.
- Trade settlement in national currencies.
- India’s oil, coal, fertiliser and other commodity imports from Russia.
- Indian exports to Russia, market access and tariff barriers.
- A growing number of Indian students going to study in Russia.
- The potential of higher education in engineering, industry and sports.
- Eastern Economic Forum and the Chennai-Vladivostok Eastern Maritime Corridor.
- International North-South Transport Corridor.
- Northern Sea Route.
- Russia-India defence partnership.
- Joint design and production in the defence sphere.
- BRICS and RIC.
- and the bilateral meeting between Prime Minister Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
