Trade between Russia and India skyrocketed this year, with the turnover of goods in January-August already surpassing the total for the previous year.
According to data from the Indian Ministry of Commerce and Industry, total trade between the two countries in the first eight months of the year reached $43.8 billion, an all-time high.
Exports of Russian goods in particular surged to $41.2 billion against $17.1 billion during the same time last year. Russian imports from India reached $2.6 billion, a 50% increase.
Russia is currently among India’s top five trading partners in terms of goods turnover.
The substantial growth in bilateral trade came amid the ‘pivot to the East’ Moscow has pursued as a result of the unprecedented economic sanctions placed on Russia by Western states over the conflict in Ukraine. The loss of traditional Western trade partners has forced Russia to seek out new markets, especially for its abundant energy exports. According to media reports, in September alone, India’s imports of Russian oil surged by 80% year-on-year, to an average of 1.56 million barrels per day (bpd).
India has also increased purchases of Russian diamonds, having bought gems worth $886.5 million in the reporting period, a 26% increase year-on-year.
“Mutual trade turnover over the past year and a half is an unprecedented story,” Valentina Matvienko, speaker of the upper house of the Russian parliament, said earlier this month.
“It has grown five-fold. It used to be about $10 billion, now it is already closer to $50 billion… Yet the potential of our countries is much greater; we need to continue to develop it,” she told reporters on the sidelines of the G20 Parliamentary Speakers’ Summit (P20) in New Delhi. She noted that the growth of mutual economic cooperation between the two countries is evident in the energy sector, agriculture, and in IT, while India continues to express an interest in further strengthening trade ties with Russia.
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