India-Russia economic dialogue may focus on key areas

Cooperation in infrastructure development, agriculture, MSMEs, trade and fintech could be the focus areas for the government at it goes into second round of India-Russia economic dialogue, kick-starting from Wednesday.

The second India-Russia Strategic Economic Dialogue (IRSED) shall be held on July 10 in New Delhi, under the chairmanship of NITI Aayog vice chairman Rajiv Kumar and Timur Maksimov, deputy minister of the economic development of the Russian Federation.

“The second meeting of the IRSED shall be focussing on six core areas of cooperation, namely, development of transport infrastructure and technologies; development of agriculture and agro-processing sector; small and medium business support; digital transformation and frontier technologies; cooperation in trade, banking, finance, and industry; and tourism & connectivity,” the Aayog said in a statement.


The IRSED was established following a bilateral memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between NITI Aayog and the ministry of economic development of the Russian Federation during the 19th edition of the Annual India-Russia Bilateral Summit, which was held on October 5, 2018, in New Delhi.

The first India-Russia Strategic Economic Dialogue was held in St. Petersburg in November last year and was chaired by Maxim Oreshkin, minister of economic development of the Russian Federation, and Rajiv Kumar, vice-chairman, NITI Aayog.