On January 30th, the Moscow Chamber of Commerce and Industry hosted the Conference: "Russian-Indian Relations in a Broad Geopolitical Context: Aspects of Bilateral Cooperation".
The event was organized by the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC), “Synergia Foundation” and the Moscow Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
The main goal of the Conference was to establish contacts between representatives of business circles and expert community of the two countries to jointly search for solutions for priority issues of economic cooperation between Russia and India.
During the course of the Conference, the topical issues of the Russian-Indian agenda in the new geopolitical environment were highlighted; primarily addressed were possible areas for deepening trade and economic cooperation between Moscow and New Delhi. Special attention was paid to the obstacles to increasing trade turnover and opportunities for overcoming them.
Speaking at the plenary session, the MCCI’s President, Mr. Vladimir Platonov, emphasized that current sanctions help Russia transform itself rom the status of a buyer-country into the country that produces many goods itself, as well as finding new partners”.
Our trade and economic relations need an urgent reset," Mr. Tobby Simon said in his speech. - The growing volume of bilateral trade, which has surpassed all imaginable records over the year, reaching almost 60 billion dollars, is certainly gratifying, but building long-term bilateral economic relations only on oil trade is not a promising way even while considering the boom observed today. In his opinion, in order to provide economic opportunities between the two countries "it is necessary to seriously undertake cooperation in the IT-area, the field of artificial intelligence, new technologies in various fields of science, since" the breakthroughs in these areas show the strength of states”, the expert said.
The RIAC scientific director, Mr. Andrei Kortunov, also supported this opinion: "Without, of course, giving up trade in general and oil fields in particular, it is necessary to move towards industrial cooperation in bilateral relations between Russia and India," he said, “It is important for us to build ourselves into united bilateral or multilateral production and applicable technological chains. Speaking about the areas, where Moscow and New Delhi can now work together, the speaker named biotechnology, information technology, logistics and transportation.
In addition to the plenary session, the Conference included three expert sessions: "Russian-Indian Partnership: A View from Moscow and New Delhi on Strategic Partnership Opportunities", "The Economic Dimension of Bilateral Relations, Audit of Interim Results" and "Russian-Indian Cooperation in the Energy Sector: Opportunities for New Projects". The participants were also able to discuss the issues raised at the Conference and to exchange contacts during networking.