The Hindu : Indo-Russian trade ties has increased: Minister

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Sep 22, 2002

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International

Indo-Russian trade ties has increased: Minister

Moscow Sept. 21. The trade and economic cooperation between India and Russia has increased recently, even though it is ``noticeably lagging behind its potential,'' the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister, Alexander Saltanov, said here.

He was replying to a question-answer column started by Interfax news agency on its web-site.

Citing a number of large-scale joint projects currently underway, Mr. Saltanov said the two countries ``are successfully cooperating in large-scale projects in the energy industry, metallurgy, road construction and other fields.''

He said, among other projects, the Sakhalin-1 oil and gas project worth 1.7 $ billion Indian investment, the construction of 2.6 $ billion Koodunkulam nuclear power station, in Tamil Nadu, and joint venture in oil exploration in the Bay of Bengal, in which Russia's oil major Gazprom and Zarubezhneftegaz will cooperate with Indian companies, under a production sharing agreement.

Mr. Saltanov said although the trade turnover between the two countries was 1.4 $ billion in 2001, it was likely to increase in the near future.

``The agreement on the construction of an international North-South corridor signed by Russia, Iran and India, will boost our large-scale cooperation with in India, in trade,'' he said.The two sides are expected to make assessment of the immense possibilities of increasing the annual trade turnover, when the Foreign Minister Yashwant Sinha visits Moscow, next month, for the inter-sessional review meeting of the Indo-Russian Inter-Governmental Commission (IGC) on trade and economic cooperation.

Mr. Sinha will co-chair the session with his Russian counterpart, Ilya Klebanov, Minister for Industry, Science and Technology. — UNI

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