India and Russia agreed on Thursday to strengthen energy trade and overall economic cooperation as their foreign ministers met in Moscow, signaling that U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs on India for buying Russian oil would not disrupt their long-standing relationship.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov highlighted “good results in cooperation in the hydrocarbon sector, in the supply of Russian oil to the Indian market,” and said both sides were eager to pursue joint projects in energy resource extraction, including ventures in Russia’s Far East and on the Arctic shelf.
Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar emphasized that India-Russia ties have been “among the steadiest of major nations in the world since World War Two,” underscoring their historic friendship dating back to the Soviet era.
The ministers reaffirmed their shared goal of expanding bilateral trade, with New Delhi keen on boosting exports of pharmaceuticals, agriculture products, and textiles to Russia. Jaishankar stressed the need to address “non-tariff barriers and regulatory impediments” to correct the current trade imbalance.
Russia, facing Western sanctions over the Ukraine conflict, has redirected much of its oil exports to India and China, making New Delhi a key partner in sustaining Moscow’s energy revenues.
