WATCH: ‘Need to boost trade with India,’ says Russian Deputy PM on trade imbalances

New Delhi: Moscow needs to boost the trade with New Delhi in order to balance Russia's merchandise trade deficit with India, said Russian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Industry and Trade Denis Valentinovich Manturov.

"We need to boost the trade with India and we are looking at balance like for example, we have with China. We have $200 billion trade with China, and it's balanced," said Manturov on the India-Russia trade and payments issue.

Manturov is on a two-day visit to India to co-chair the Intergovernmental Russian-Indian Commission, which is aimed at enhancing trade ties between the two countries.

India-Russia free trade agreement

India and Russia are discussing a free trade agreement (FTA), an initiative that would give a fillip to bilateral commercial ties that have flourished since the conflict began in Ukraine.

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The FTA talks will be a step-up in economic relations between India and Russia despite calls from Western countries for New Delhi to gradually distance itself from Moscow over its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

India's imports from Russia more than quadrupled to $46.33 billion over the last fiscal year, mainly through oil.

Surge in Russia-China trade

After sanctions were imposed on Russia last year, it gave away dollar to trade in yuan with China.

As both the countries started settling bilateral transactions in Chinese renminbi, there was no currency conversion fee which led to increase in trade.

China's total exports to Russia grew to $76.12 billion in 2022, representing an increase of over 12 per cent compared to a year earlier.

Russian President Vladimir Putin in March endorsed the broader international use of the renminbi. As he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping, he said that he supported "the use of the yuan in payments between Russia and countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America," a report by TASS had said.

With inputs from agencies

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