EAM: Confident of achieving trade target with Russia

India is confident of achieving commerce worth $100 billion with Russia before the target date of 2030, though the two sides need to address constraints to ensure trade is more balanced, external affairs minister S Jaishankar said on Tuesday.

- Rezaul H Laskar

The two sides have seen "perceptible progress" in tackling challenges to trade, especially issues related to payments and logistics, but there is "still some work to be done", Jaishankar said while co-chairing a meeting of the main body that oversees bilateral trade and technical cooperation with Russia's first deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov.

Jaishankar's remarks built on his comments at the India-Russia Business Forum in Mumbai on Monday about the need to address the imbalance in bilateral trade. India has run up a trade deficit of almost $57 billion with Russia, largely due to massive purchases of Russian crude since 2022. In July, the two sides set a target of ramping up trade to $100 billion by 2030.