External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar held a wide-ranging conversation with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow as India and Russia continued discussions on bilateral cooperation and a rapidly changing international environment.
Jaishankar said the talks covered bilateral cooperation, regional hotspots, global challenges and multilateral issues.
Editorial Insight
Key Highlights
Important points readers should notice.
Jaishankar held wide-ranging talks with Russian FM Sergey Lavrov in Moscow.
Discussions covered bilateral cooperation, regional hotspots and global challenges. Jaishankar also met President Vladimir Putin and delivered a personal message from PM Modi.
Trade, energy, fertilisers and nuclear cooperation featured prominently in the broader visit.
India and Russia are targeting $100 billion in bilateral trade by 2030.
The visit comes ahead of important SCO and BRICS engagements.
The meeting forms part of Jaishankar's two-day official visit to Russia, during which he also co-chaired the 27th India-Russia Inter-Governmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technological and Cultural Cooperation (IRIGC-TEC) with Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov.
The visit also carried a significant political message. Jaishankar met Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin and conveyed a personal communication from Prime Minister Narendra Modi. During that meeting, Jaishankar said India and Russia had a strong picture of cooperation to present, particularly in areas including trade, energy, fertilisers and nuclear cooperation.
Putin, meanwhile, said Russia's trade with India had begun growing again this year after declining slightly in the previous year and indicated that Moscow was working to increase fertiliser supplies to meet India's agricultural requirements.
Editorial Analysis
Why This Matters
The Moscow visit shows that India-Russia ties remain an active strategic relationship even as global alignments continue to change. For India, maintaining access to Russian energy, fertilisers, defence cooperation and other strategic sectors while expanding trade and correcting the bilateral trade imbalance remains an important diplomatic priority.
The economic dimension is particularly important as both countries seek to expand bilateral trade while addressing the existing trade imbalance. Jaishankar has said that improving market access, removing tariff and non-tariff barriers, strengthening payment mechanisms and increasing business-to-business engagement will be important to the shared objective of reaching $100 billion in bilateral trade by 2030.
The Moscow discussions also come ahead of several important diplomatic engagements, including upcoming SCO and BRICS meetings and a proposed visit by Putin to India for the BRICS summit. For New Delhi, the importance of the relationship extends beyond any single sector. India and Russia continue to maintain longstanding cooperation in defence, energy, nuclear power, trade, science and technology and other areas. The two countries' strategic partnership has also remained active despite major shifts in global geopolitics.
