As India and Russia set an ambitious trade target of USD 20 billion by 2015,Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has asked industry captains from both sides to work for enhancement of economic relations to take them to the level of close political ties shared by the two countries. India and Russia are strategic partners and we have a broad-ranging relationship. However,our bilateral trade and investment cooperation have not kept pace with our close political ties. This is despite the fact that there are strong complementarities between our two trillion-dollar-plus economies, Singh said addressing Indo-Russia CEOs Council. Assuring full support to the Council in this regard,he said there may be other areas for cooperation and that the industry captains should take the lead. During their summit-level talks on Monday,Singh and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev set a trade target of USD 20 billion by 2015 from around USD seven billion in 2008. India expects greater trade in specific areas like nuclear energy,IT,pharma and infrastructure with Russia,Singh,who is on a three-day official visit here,told the Council last night Rough diamonds is another area where India expects to convert adhoc contacts with Russian industry into long-term arrangements,he said. The energy sector illustrates the strong complementarities between us - Russia is a major producer of energy,and India is one of the fastest growing consumers., he said.
