Russian Far East: A new energy bridge
The Indian Ambassador to Russia D B Venkatesh Varma has highlighted new projects in the strategic and longstanding partnerships that look to each other for opportunities and projects for cooperation.
Addressing a webinar on 27 May 2020, Varma restated commitment to make the Russian Far East as an energy bridge between India and Russia as agreed by the two countries during the 2019 meeting in Vladivostok.
This energy cooperation based will go beyond consumer-supplier needs and mutually enhance the economic strength and development of both sides.
“In addition to oil and gas, several new projects in LNG, coking coal and other associated projects including ports and infrastructure are only bound to give an impetus to the energy partnership between India and Russia,” said the envoy.
He pointed out that the longstanding defence cooperation is bound to strengthen further in the future keeping in mind the recent finetuning of the Make in India programme.
He called upon the Russian defence industry to view the additional incentives announced as part of the Make in India programme as a complementary aspect to the existing defence cooperation partnership, considering Russia was one of the first Indian partners to implement the Make in India programme.
Moving further, he mentioned pharmaceutical and healthcare cooperation and said that the COVID-19 pandemic has shed new light on the significant and potential cooperation that lies ahead in this sector.
The ambassador assured full help of the embassy to industry stakeholders on both sides looking to explore new opportunities in the pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors encompassing a vast gamut of products and services including medicines, vaccines, therapeutics, medical devices, telemedicine, hospital infrastructure, etc.
On other sectors, Varma underlined the importance of multiple opportunities in the telecom, agro and agriculture products, textiles and apparel sectors, and emphasised that supply chain diversification is a must in order to reduce overdependence on one or two major suppliers.
He also talked about the diamond industry and how it became one of the worst affected sectors on both sides. Both governments must handhold the diamond industry during this plunge so that they are able to bounce back and once activities in investments, technologies and companies pick up within a year’s time, Ambassador Varma recommended.
The webinar on defining a new paradigm in India Russia Relations during the era of COVID-19 which was held by ASSOCHAM on 27 May 2020. fiinews.com
