Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Monday, hailing a dramatic surge in bilateral trade and pledging deeper economic cooperation in energy, fertilisers, and nuclear sectors. The meeting sets the stage for Putin’s expected visit to New Delhi for the BRICS leaders’ summit in September.
Trade Quadruples in Five Years
Jaishankar, who arrived in Moscow on Sunday for a two-day visit, told Putin that bilateral trade in goods had quadrupled over the past five years, rising from roughly $13 billion in 2021-22 to nearly $60 billion in 2025-26. “Overall, I think our economic cooperation has grown very significantly,” Jaishankar said, noting that Indian exports to Russia had surged from $6.6 billion to over $50 billion.
The two sides held a meeting of the Intergovernmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technological and Cultural Cooperation, co-chaired by Jaishankar and Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov. They discussed pathways to address the trade imbalance and set a target of reaching $100 billion in bilateral trade by 2030. “Addressing this imbalance is today one of our foremost priorities,” Jaishankar said.
Putin Signals Continued Fertiliser Support
Putin confirmed that trade between Russia and India had increased this year and said Moscow was increasing fertiliser supplies to New Delhi. He asked Jaishankar to convey his best wishes to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and expressed hope of meeting him soon on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Kyrgyzstan, scheduled for August 31 to September 1.
The meeting comes at a sensitive geopolitical moment. Russia remains under sweeping Western sanctions over its war in Ukraine, yet India has emerged as one of Moscow’s most important economic partners, driven largely by Indian purchases of discounted Russian oil. New Delhi has resisted Western pressure to curtail its energy ties with Moscow, framing the relationship as a matter of sovereign interest.
BRICS Summit Looms Over Talks
Ahead of the BRICS summit in New Delhi on September 12-13, the India-Russia economic partnership is expected to feature prominently in discussions about expanding the bloc’s financial and trade architecture. BRICS has grown in recent years to include new members from the Middle East and Africa, and India and Russia are pushing for greater use of non-dollar payment mechanisms in bilateral trade.
India’s growing trade surplus with Russia reflects a broader shift in the bilateral dynamic. In earlier decades, Russia was primarily an arms supplier to India. Now, Indian pharmaceuticals, chemicals, textiles, and manufactured goods dominate exports to Moscow, while Russian crude oil accounts for the bulk of imports. The trade pivot underscores how the war in Ukraine and the resulting sanctions regime have reshaped commercial flows between major economies.
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