New Delhi and Moscow have pledged to deliver on commitments to reach $100 billion in bilateral trade by 2030

There is a "special opportunity" for doing business between India and Russia, New Delhi's ambassador to Moscow said at the ongoing St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF 2026).

Invoking Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Make-in-India initiative, Vinay Kumar suggested that the model can be a bellwether for expanding business ties between New Delhi and Moscow.

"There is a new and very special opportunity between our two countries, that is, making in Russia for India," Kumar said.

He cited sectors including mineral resources, critical materials, and fertilizers as areas where these new opportunities could be explored and "in which Indian and Russian companies can set up joint ventures in Russia."

Such an approach would facilitate "a captive export market for India," he added.

Kumar also said natural resources, manpower and mobility should be tapped as the countries work toward achieving the $100 billion trade target set by Russian President Vladimir Putin and Modi at their New Delhi summit in December.

The envoy pointed out that over the last couple of years, the number of Indian workers in Russia has risen to 100,000.

A framework for boosting trade between Moscow and New Delhi, which is already in place, needs to be implemented "with a view to de-risking the supply chain and making it more resilient."

He said companies need to develop new manufacturing sites and create new supply chains, which would enable them to meet "the demand scale, demand in India and also in third countries."

The envoy also cited India's transformation in the digital landscape, including the unified payment interface (UPI), which processes over 18 billion transactions monthly, making it one of the largest real-time payment systems on the planet.

The economic cooperation program initiated by Putin and Modi is a "shared commitment, a roadmap that spans energy, transport, technology, science, and people-to-people ties," Kumar said.

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From oil and gas cooperation to civil nuclear energy, energy ties have been the bedrock of India-Russia ties for decades, he noted.

(RT.com)