Russia's full participation expected in G20 events during India's presidency, says MEA

India has taken over the presidency of the G20 and to mark the occasion, PM Modi has written a blog. The Indian PM wrote that "today, we do not need to fight for our survival - our era need not be one of war. Indeed, it must not be one! Today, the greatest challenges we face - climate change, terrorism, and pandemics - can be solved not by fighting each other, but only by acting together." New Delhi has said that India expects full participation of Russia in the G20 summit. 

During a press briefing, India's foreign ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said, "Russia is a member of the G20 and hence we would expect them to be participating in these processes (G20)". He added that India's goal would be to make sure the G20 unites to solve global challenges, especially the challenges that confront low and middle income countries. "It is an important grouping. It works on the important principle of consensus. As the G20 chair, our effort would be to build consensus and we have tried to do that in the final stages of the Bali Summit,” Bagchi said. In the 2nd week of November, India's External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar visited Russia to discuss the state of bilateral relationship between the two nations. 

India-Russia bilateral trade   

The issue of trade was discussed as India and Russia's bilateral trade has witnessed a spike due to the rise in imports of Russian oil. Although bilateral trade has gone up, the trade deficit has increased as well, in Moscow's favour, which is a concern for India. Jaishankar reportedly raised the issue in his meeting with Russia's foreign minister Lavrov. Now, Russia has reportedly sent a list to India, laying out all the goods it needs. The list is reportedly 14 pages long and it includes aeroplane tyres, car engines and many other things. Indian firms are hesitant to supply these goods to Russia as secondary sanctions cast a shadow above these firms, as per Quartz. The risk is that if Indian firms supply Russia with the goods that Russia needs, they might face sanctions.

Responding to a question if Russia has sent a list to India for products, Bagchi said: "I am not sure if there is any agreement as such. I'm not sure there's an agreement as such or if even such items have been supplied. This is a regular feature and nothing more should be read into that."

He, however, added: "We've regular engagement with Russia on how to expand trade, how to expand it & this has been going on for many years. From time to time both sides indicate areas of interest & priority that they may be looking at & I'd urge that nothing more should be read into this."