Russia-India forum to boost bilateral trade, joint ventures: Official

Taliya Minullina, head of Tatarstan's Investment Development Agency, stated the Russia-India Business Forum aims to boost bilateral trade and joint ventures. She noted that trade between Tatarstan and India surged to over $1 billion in 2026.

Kazan [Russia], October 15 (ANI): Taliya Minullina, Chief Executive of the Tatarstan Investment Development Agency, said the Russia-India Business Forum would help increase bilateral trade and promote new initiatives and joint ventures between businesses from the two countries.Speaking to ANI on Wednesday on the sidelines of the second Russia-India Business Forum, titled Tatarstan Initiative Mutual Efficiency (TIME), Minullina said the annual event aims to strengthen business relations between Russian regions and Indian states across different sectors. "Russia-India Business Forum TIME is the biggest event between Russia and India on a business level on an annual basis that is in charge of reinforcing relations between Russian regions and Indian states in different sectors," she said.Describing India as a major market for Russian businesses, Minullina expressed confidence that the forum would contribute to increasing trade turnover and encouraging joint ventures between Indian and Russian companies. "India is a huge market, and it has lots of opportunities for Russian businesses. I'm sure that this platform will contribute a lot to the increase of Russian and Indian turnover as well as to new initiatives and joint ventures between Russian and Indian businesses," she added.

Trade Growth Highlighted

Highlighting the growth in trade between Russia's Republic of Tatarstan and India, Minullina said the turnover had crossed USD 1 billion in the first six months of 2026, compared to USD 300 million recorded last year. "Last year we established this forum, and we had a $300 million turnover between Tatarstan and India. This year, in just six months of 2026, we have more than $1 billion, so it has increased three times," she said.

Call for Stronger Business Connections

Emphasising the need for greater business-to-business interactions and awareness of market opportunities, Minullina said stronger connections between businesses would benefit both countries. "I feel that we need more business-to-business information, more contacts, and once we have more contacts and more people know about each other, it will be better for both countries. We just need to know more about Indian states," she said.

Promoting Economic and Cultural Exchanges

Highlighting the initiatives undertaken to promote economic and cultural exchanges, Minullina said nearly 50 events had been organised, including Indian cinema festivals, cricket matches, chess matches, conferences, business sessions and visits to industrial facilities. "We organised almost 50 different events, including the festival of Indian cinema. In Russia, we organised the cricket match and even have a cricket federation in Tatarstan, especially to work with India. We organised chess matches, lots of conferences and business sessions devoted to sectors, as well as industrial site visits for Indian people. We invited mass media from India, from different Indian states, to make it possible for Indian businesses to know more about Russian market opportunities for them," she added.

Indian Diplomat's Perspective

Meanwhile, Consul General of India in Kazan, Jeysundhar Deviprasadh, said the second edition of the India-Russia Business Forum in Kazan aims to strengthen economic relations between the two countries by facilitating interactions between Indian businesses and their Russian counterparts.He said, "And this city of Kazan and this region of Tatarstan is one of the dynamically growing and one of the richest parts of Russia, which is why we are hosting this summit here, this business forum here, so that we have Indian businesses coming here and interacting with their Russian counterparts in order to not only increase awareness about the potential opportunities on the other side for Russia and India as well as for India and Russia, but also to build upon the existing ties and continue to explore what opportunities we would have for strengthening our business interactions, taking it beyond the political spectrum and into the economic relations area," he added."(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Asianet Newsable English staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)