India, Russia agree on Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement with Belarus-Kazakhstan

With an aim to boost trade ties, India and Russia have agreed to jointly study a Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement with Belarus-Kazakhstan-Russia Customs Union and exuded confidence to achieve ambitious an trade target of $ 20 billion by 2015. “We exchanged constructive views on various aspects of India-Russia trade and investment cooperation. We sought definite solutions to certain outstanding problems confronting our business communities and explored ways to enhance our trade turnover,” External Affairs Minister S M Krishna said after his meeting with Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin. “To forge greater contacts, we have agreed to jointly study a Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) with the Belarus- Kazakhstan-Russia Customs Union,” he said. The bilateral trade between India and Russia was nearly $ 9 billion in 2011. India’s exports to Russia include pharmaceuticals, coffee, tea, tobacco, processed fruits and cotton yarn while India’s imports include mineral products, natural pearls, machinery and equipment and textiles. The Customs Union between Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus had formally come into existence on January, 2010. The three countries took their economic integration to a new level with the implementation of the common economic space which provides for free movement of goods, services, people and investments.