Manmohan Singh's Russian visit all about boosting trade

NEW DELHI: Economics issues are set to dominate Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s agenda during his Moscow trip later this month. India would seek Russian investments in the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor Project and its larger presence in Russia’s oil & gas sectors.


For the first time, since the launch of annual bilateral summits over a decade back, the primary focus will be on business and investments and not strategic issues. Russia is India’s oldest strategic partner, yet trade and business relations remain lukewarm. In the post-Cold War era, Russia has displayed economic prowess but India is yet to take advantage of it, despite its growing market. However, faced with massive investment needs, New Delhi is now keen on deepening commercial ties.

“The focus of the annual summit will be on economics. We will seek Russian investments in DMIC Project. This project requires massive investments. Besides, we want to expand our presence in the Russian hydrocarbon sectors,” an MEA official told ET.

Russia has massive oil & gas reserves. India meets 80% oil needs via imports. The quantum of Russian investments in DMIC would be known only after detailed discussions. There are indications that Moscow could offer concrete support for DMIC during Singh's trip.

The DMIC Trust had recently cleared six projects worth Rs 1.10 lakh crore investments. The projects include Integrated Industrial Township at Greater Noida, Improvement of Water Supply System to Pithampur-Dhar-Mhow Investment Region in Madhya Pradesh, Integrated Multimodal Logistics Hub in Haryana and Construction of New Rail Line from Bhimnath to Dholera.

However, the irritant in Manmohan’s Singh’s talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on October 21 will be the Nuclear Liability law. Russia is monitoring the NPCIL-Westinghouse pre-early works agreement that could limit liability of suppliers, sources in the Russian government said. Future negotiations would be based on this Indo-US deal.

While the first unit at Kudankulam is expected to start producing electricity in a month, there is no certainty that contracts for Units 3 and 4 will be signed soon. Moscow wants the entire project to be out of purview of the high liability law. The two sides are also negotiating price for Units 3 and 4. But the General Framework Agreement for these two units could be signed at the Summit. Meanwhile, the two leaders will focus on Syria and Afghanistan among international issues when they meet.

External Affairs Salman Khurshid is currently in Moscow for a series of meetings to prepare for the 14th India-Russia Annual Summit. Besides meeting his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov, Khurshid will lead the Indian side for the 19th meeting of the Indo-Russian Inter-Governmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technical and Cultural Cooperation ( IRIGC-TEC) on October 4. Russian Deputy PM Dmitry Rogozin will lead the Russian side at the meeting. During the meeting Khurshid and Rogozin are expected to mainly focus on increasing the bilateral investment, in particular, the private investment and annual trade which was $11 billion in 2012. The two countries have set a target of $20 billion by 2015.