Name: Russia and India plan to expand trade, as India faces US tariff pressure | DW News
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India and Russia have vowed to expand their ties beyond energy and defence despite Western pressure on Delhi to scale back its partnership with Moscow.

During his visit to New Delhi, President Vladimir Putin said Russia was ready to continue uninterrupted shipments of fuel to India.

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the two sides have finalized an economic cooperation program until 2030.

He also reiterated India's support for peace efforts in Ukraine.

We can now listen to some of what the two leaders said during a press briefing in relation to Ukraine.

India has maintained the side of peace from the beginning.

We welcome all efforts being made for a peaceful and sustainable resolution of this issue.

India has always been ready to make its contribution and will continue to do so.

Russia and India pursue independent and autonomous foreign policies.

We, along with supporters from brics, SCO and from the states of the world's majority, promote the process of forming a fairer, more democratic, multipolar world order and advocate for the fundamental principles of international law enshrined in the UN Charter.

He's a professor at JNU's center for European Studies specializing in EU, India, Russia relations and India's multi alignment strategy.

Now we heard Prime Minister Modi there repeating what he has said in the past.

India is on the side of peace in Ukraine.

But how much of a priority is that for Delhi?

Well, I mean this is a priority in the sense that this is affecting India's relations with the United States.

This is affecting India's relations to some extent.

Even Europe and India would like to peace come to Ukraine as soon as possible.

So then India can really work with all the partners, including with Russia because Russia also has been a very important partner.

Since Russia is under sanctions, there are difficulties of, you know, making payments, etc.

So India would like really to peace come to as soon as possible in Ukraine.

So that's why it has supported all peace initiative, including the recent one.

Could India do more to support the peace process?

Well, I think putting pressure on Russia is not the way I think India look at this because now in fact I think India is pleased that already now there is a certain momentum when American administration is talking to Russian authorities about end of Ukraine war.

But India has of course always said that it is willing to support any peace initiative and if it is willing to ask anything, it will do.

And even today the very initial statement which Prime Minister Modi made a large part of that was about Ukraine War about the importance of peace for the world and also you know, for bilateral relations.

Although it was a bilateral relationship but it was obviously dominated by what is happening in Ukraine and the peace initiative.

Now what do you think how will the European Union for example react to this trade deal as it has Russia heavily sanctioned right now?

Well, India has not signed any trade deal yet.

They are just talking about India Eurasian Economic Union free trade agreement, fast tracking trade agreement.

Because you know what has happened is now you have about 70 billion trade with Russia which is largely import of crude oil from Russia.

So Indian exports are only about 5, 6 billion dollars.

So India obviously would like to export more to Russia.

And particularly when the many Western and European companies are out there are opportunities which Indian companies can take advantage of.

But any new kind of free trade deal with the Eurasian Economic Union can tackle some of the issues particularly about non tariff barriers, other kind of issues.

So that's why they're looking for fast tracking trade deal and also investment agreement with Russia because they feel that Russian companies could also invest more in India and similarly Indians can also invest more in Russia as well.

Now how does India plan to balance the ties between the west including the US and Russia?

Well, India is already balancing in a sense.

India has very close partnership with the United States with Europe also India's relations are pretty close.

In fact next month the European Commission president and the European Council president would be visiting India.

They would be chief guest of India's Republic Day.

And there's a possibility that India and the European Union may also finalize the trade negotiations which continuing.

So India is trying to balance and this is also a kind of India's the way to assert its strategic autonomy and also diversify its relations both in defense and also in in energy sector.

Because earlier India used to be more dependent on energy on the Middle east.

Then the task was really how do you really diversify.

So if at some point of time at the moment the import from Russian oil is more it's a dynamic situation.

Things may change but it looks like that at least a certain amount of oil will continue to come to India.

But and many of the connectivity project which India and Russia has been talking for years like international north south trade corridor and also Chennai, Vladivostok corridor and other corridors.

You know those many of those corridors really didn't take off because the trade volumes were low.

They're hoping to have 100 billion trade in the next two, three years.

So there are trade volumes it will have I would say it'll be, it'll make many of those connectivity projects also viable.

They are looking positively to many of those things.

This actually fits very well in India's diversification strategy because it is also buying weapons from the us, Israel and France and others.

So I think that fits well within the India's strategic autonomy argument and also William's own diversification.

Let's dive a bit deeper into all that with our correspondence.

For the Russian perspective, I'm now joined by DW Correspondent Sergei Satinovsky joins me from Riga where DW relocated its Moscow bureau since we're not allowed to operate from within Russia anymore.

And Sandra Petersmann is with me, our New Delhi bureau chief.

As mentioned, India and Russia agreed on expanding and diversifying trade until 2030.

Well, there was much talk heard about joint production and joint innovation.

Really those two terms came up as buzzwords through throughout the statements by both leaders.

And standing out in this sense was defence cooperation.

Russia is willing to help India become more self reliant when it comes to the production of weapons at home by for instance, technology transfer, by expanding joint development and joint production of military hardware inside India.

Also mentioned were the increased cooperation in critical fields like fertilizers, critical minerals and pharmaceutical production as well.

And another very important sector, civil nuclear energy.

Russia is ready to provide India with small modular nuclear reactors to satisfy India's rising energy needs.

And let's not forget all of this is happening while India has to cut down on its purchase of Russian crude oil because of US Punitive tariffs and because of sanctions.

Now that you mentioned that Putin did talk about oil deliveries to India, let's have a quick listen.

Russia is a reliable supplier of energy resources and everything necessary for the development of India's energy sector.

We are ready to continue uninterrupted shipments of fuel for the fast growing Indian economy.

If that is indeed the case, if the deliveries will continue uninterrupted erupted, that would be a major win for Putin to bring back to Moscow, would it not?

Well, this Putin's statements, I would say a statement I would say basically means just one thing.

Russia is ready to do its part in this case to keep sending as much oil to India as India wants without interruption.

But what we don't know, what neither Putin nor Modi said today, is whether India is actually ready to keep buying that oil.

Right now deliveries have dropped significantly because of US And UK Sanctions on Russian oil companies.

And so far it seems like India doesn't want to risk getting hit with high US Tariffs for buying Russian oil.

And that could seriously actually damage Russia's oil industry and the wider economy because India is one of Russia's biggest oil buyers.

So this key question that might have been discussed today in New Delhi is still unanswered, but

we will soon see if this meeting had any effect on the amount of oil going from Russia to India.

Now, Sandra, on Ukraine, Modi said today India is not neutral.

Is there anything new you've learned about India's position on Russia's war in Ukraine?

This is a line that Modi has kept on repeating ever since 2022.

Ukraine, in fact, was hardly mentioned in the press statement that both leaders gave to media here in Delhi.

Modi repeated that India welcomes any effort that would bring the cessation of hostilities that would bring both sides to the negotiating table.

And Vladimir Putin on his part skipped Ukraine altogether.

But he did mention and emphasized it even that India and Russia do share a multipolar vision of the world in which all sides are respected and heard.

Gerhard Sergei Modi also said that India Russia relations should grow and touch new heights.

How big of a success is this visit for Putin then?

You know, I think we can't say yet how big a practical success this visit really was.