Russian President Putin’s visit seen to boost bilateral trade, investment opportunities

India’s high trade deficit with Russia is likely to be in focus as both countries look to boost bilateral trade and expand investment opportunities during President Vladimir Putin’s two-day visit to India. The two countries aim to boost bilateral trade to $100 billion by 2030 from $68.7 billion in FY25.

India and the five-nation Russia-led bloc of Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU)—which includes Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyz Republic—are also working on a free trade agreement. The terms of reference were signed on August 20 with an 18-month plan to diversify markets for Indian businesses.

Putin will arrive in New Delhi on Thursday evening and will continue his visit on December 5 before leaving late in the evening. He will be attending the 23rd India-Russia annual summit.

As per official data, in FY25, India’s exports to Russia amounted to just $4.88 billion and imports were $63.84 billion. Key Indian exports include agricultural products such as fish, shrimp, rice, tobacco, tea, coffee, grapes, chemicals and pharmaceuticals and some amount of iron and steel.

Over the past few years, since the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war, India has also upped its crude oil purchase from Russia and now gets over 35% of its crude oil requirements from that country. This has also been sticking point in the negotiations between India and the US over a bilateral trade agreement and Washington has slapped a 25% penalty on Indian exports for purchasing oil from Russia on top of the 25% reciprocal tariff.

As per an analysis by the Global Trade Research Initiative, Russia was a marginal supplier to India till 2021, with annual crude imports rarely crossing $2–3 billion and accounting for barely 1–2% of India’s oil basket. That changed overnight in 2022, when imports surged to $25.5 billion and Russia’s share jumped to nearly 15% of India’s crude oil imports as sanctions diverted Russian barrels toward Asia at steep discounts.

In 2024, imports rose further to $52.7 billion, taking Russia’s share to an extraordinary 37.3% of total crude imports. In 2025, till September, India’s crude oil imports from Russia amounted to $33.5 billion.