Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister arrives in India for trade talks

Denis Manturov, Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Industry and Trade, arrived in New Delhi on Monday to co-chair the Intergovernmental Russian-Indian Commission, which aims to strengthen trade ties between the two countries.

Taking to Twitter, the Russian Embassy in India posted, “Denis Manturov arrived in the Republic of India on a working trip. On April 17, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation – Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation Denis Manturov arrived on a two-day working visit to the Republic of India, New Delhi.”

Manturov will co-chair the 24th India-Russia Inter-governmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technological, and Cultural Cooperation (IRIGC-TEC) on the first day of his visit.

The IRIGC-TEC is the primary institutional mechanism in charge of monitoring economic cooperation. It comprises six working groups on economic and trade cooperation, modernisation and industrial cooperation, energy, tourism and culture, science and technology, and information and communication technology.

On Tuesday, the intergovernmental commission (IGC) will hold a plenary meeting, after which the co-chairs will sign the final protocol of the 24th IGC meeting. Both parties intend to discuss bilateral trade, as well as economic and humanitarian cooperation. Manturov will also hold a number of bilateral meetings, according to a tweet from the Russian Embassy in India.

A number of institutionalized mechanisms for the development of economic cooperation between the two countries have been established. IRIGC-TEC is the government’s primary institution. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Manturov co-chaired the IRIGC-TEC virtual meeting last month.

Jaishankar and Manturov reviewed the progress made in the various Working Groups and Sub-Group Meetings under the IRIGC-TEC framework since their meeting in Moscow in November 2022 and provided guidance to prepare the ground for the next IRIGC-TEC in-person meeting, which will be held in New Delhi on mutually convenient dates.

The Inter-governmental Commission was established by an Agreement on Inter-governmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific, and Technological Cooperation signed in May 1992 as a mechanism for regularly monitoring bilateral progress across the sectors of trade and economic cooperation between the two countries. The first session of the IRIGC was held on September 13 and 14, 1994. There have been 23 IRIGC meetings so far.

On September 14, 2018, the IRIGC held its 23rd session in Moscow. India will host the 24th IRIGC-TEC meeting, and today’s review meeting will pave the way for that. According to Indian data, bilateral trade totaled USD 8.1 billion between April 2020 and March 2021. Indian exports totaled USD 2.6 billion, while Russian imports totaled USD 5.48 billion. According to Russian figures, bilateral trade totaled USD 9.31 billion during the same period, with Indian exports totaling USD 3.48 billion and imports totaling USD 5.83 billion.