India and Russia have nearly finished talks of an ambitious government-to-government agreement for the long-term import of crude oil by India from Russia’s Far East region, NDTV reports.
The pact is likely to be inked during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit in October for the annual summit talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, diplomatic sources told PTI.
The pact is set to help the two countries achieve their target of taking the volume of annual bilateral trade to $30 billion from current $11 billion.
When asked about it, Russian Deputy Chief of Mission Roman Babushkin told Indian media that both India and Russia are adopting a “multi-dimensional” approach in boosting cooperation in the oil and gas sector in sync with decisions taken by Putin and Modi in their last annual summit in Vladivostok in September.
“We have signed an important contract a few days back for the supply of two million tonnes of oil to India from Russia by the end of the current year. We are also considering to sign a long-term contract for the supply of oil (to India) for many years,” Babushkin said.
“We should realize our potential as reliable partners in energy sector. Another area would be the mutual investment cooperation in the energy sector in India and Russia,” he added.
He said Indian oil and gas companies are positively considering participating in the exploration of oil and gas in Russia’s Far East region.
