Russia has decided to increase imports of agriculture and pharmaceutical products from India to compensate for India’s possible losses from the 50% import duty imposed by the US. This announcement was made by Russian President Vladimir Putin during the Waldai International Forum, just before he visited India and holds a summit with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Putin said that Russia is planning to balance trade imbalance by increasing the import of grains, pulses, spices, processed food and medicines from India. He directed the Russian officials to prepare concrete steps and proposals to increase cooperation with India.
The current trade between India and Russia is about $ 63 billion. After the Ukraine crisis, India has increased the purchase of oil from Russia. Putin said that American tariffs may affect India’s medicine and labor-dominated goods production process, and Russia will help in compensating for this loss.
President Putin emphasized the strength and stability of India-Russia relations. He said that there was never any interstate stress between the two countries, and this partnership is based on trust and sensitivity. Putin called Prime Minister Modi a “balanced, intelligent and national vision leader” and also described as his personal friend. He also said that Modi always gives priority to India’s interest and will not allow the country to be humiliated under any external pressure.
Putin also clarified that it is necessary to remove the obstacles in financial, logistic and payment systems to take advantage of the entire capacity of India-Russia trade. He said that the trade of $ 63 billion between India and Russia can be compared to the trade of 50 billion dollars of Belarus, and there is a further increase in India’s large population and economic scale.
According to experts, this move of Russia is not only to deal with the influence of the US tariff, but it is also an attempt to further strengthen India and Russia’s long -standing historical and mutual beneficial relations. This initiative is considered a strategic step towards keeping India safe from global economic tremors and giving a new direction to business partnership.