Trade between India and Russia grows by 58 % in first half of 2003
Mutual trade between Russia and India totalled $ 1.87 bn and grew by 58 % over the first seven months of 2003,
compared with the same period in 2002. This information was released by the Russian Economic Development Ministry on
the eve of Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's official visit to Russia.
Russian exports to India between January and July totalled $ 1.57 bn; import from India totalled $ 0.3 bn. In the
last five years, mutual trade averaged $ 1.7 bn a year. In that trade, Russian exports grew by 16 % annually while
Indian imports had a tendency to decrease by 6 % annually.
A large cooperation project on the building of the nuclear power plant Kudankulam is being carried out as part of
economic cooperation between the two countries. Gazprom has begun investigating at the oil and gas block #26 in the
Bengal gulf. The Indian ONGC company is taking part in the Sakhalin-1 project and has invested $ 1.7 bn in the
project. Russkiy Aluminy is working on the possibility of getting astake in one of the leading Indian aluminium
companies NALCO.
Topics for discussion at the upcoming meeting include the removal of obstacles for the admission of traditional and
highly technical products on the Indian market and minimizing the negative influences of the limits set by India for
Russian products. In addition, discussions will be held on the possibility of India aiding Russia in its attempt to
join the WTO.
Other issues that will be discussed include:
-- stimulating cooperation in the fields of machines and electronics;
-- the involvement of Russian organizations in Indian state programs on development in the fields of energy and
metallurgy;
-- the creation of India's own civic aviation construction and the leasing of air-technology;
-- highway and railroad construction;
-- development, extraction, transporting and conversion of hydrocarbon; and
-- basic electronics, informational technologies, telecommunications, bio-technologies and pharmaceutical industries.
