India, Russia for promoting trade in local currencies

India and Russia Friday expressed their support to promoting bilateral trade in national currencies and pledged to increase economic cooperation through joint ventures in different sectors.

The two sides also noted that the two-way investment will increase to USD 30 billion by 2025.

Efforts would be made to further increase and diversify the trade, a joint statement issued after the 19th India-Russia annual summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin said while observing that bilateral trade in 2017 increased by more than 20 per cent.

"The (two) sides expressed their support to promoting bilateral trade in national currencies," the statement said.

India and Russia, it added, "reviewed the progress on the achievement of the goal to increase two-way investment to USD 30 billion by the year 2025 and noted with satisfaction that both countries were on the way to achieving this target." Both the countries agreed to explore opportunities for joint collaboration in sectors like precious metal, minerals, natural resources and forest produce, the statement said.

The two countries also called for expediting the negotiations for a free trade agreement between Eurasian Economic Union and its member states, and India.

The Indian side, according to the statement, invited Russian companies to participate in the development of industrial corridors in India, including in areas of road and rail infrastructure, smart cities, construction of wagons and creation of a joint transportation logistics company.

The Russian side offered its expertise in tax collection based on satellite navigation technologies for the realisation of joint projects in India including in the framework of above mentioned industrial corridors.

Both the countries called for the development of the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC) through intensified efforts by finalizing pending issues related to Customs authorities, development of road and rail infrastructure and financial facilitation through bilateral discussions as well as discussions with other partner countries at the earliest.

The joint statement also welcomed the proposed trilateral meeting between India, Federation and Iran on the sidelines of 'Transport Week - 2018' in Moscow, on the issue of Indian goods transportation through the territory of Iran to Russia.

India and Russia also supported the early launch of the Green Corridor project aimed at the simplification of customs operations in respect of goods being transported between India and Russia.

Both the countries, the statement said agreed to actively promote joint projects in third countries in sectors such as railways, energy and others where there is a complementarity between them in terms of technology and resources.

(This article has not been edited by Zeebiz editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)