India, Russia may sign agreement during PM’s Vladivostok visit

India and Russia are expected to sign an agreement during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Vladivostok next week that outlines a roadmap to increase bilateral trade manifold and includes a new investment treaty as part of measures to realize unexplored potential in economic partnership.

Russian Economic Development Minister Maxim Oreshkin said “The current volume of Sino-Russian trade stands at $110 billion and in comparison, the volume of Indo-Russian annual trade is merely $10 billion. This is simply unacceptable as the two sides have deep historical bonds for decades".

The minister said that the two sides have worked hard for the past one and a half years and will hopefully present a roadmap at the summit. “There is a huge unleashed potential in economic partnership. The two sides have worked hard to identify areas that would be potential areas of investment – logistics, transport, digital technology and startups, to name a few. The roadmap will address challenges and give solutions to realize unrealized potential”.