Five Indian states on Monday signed five Memoranda of Understanding on cooperation in various sectors, ranging from diamond to tourism, with five regions of the Russian Far East.
An Indian delegation comprising Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and chief ministers of Goa, Gujarat, Haryana and UP and over 100 business people is currently visiting the Russian Pacific city of Vladivostok. During the day, the delegation members held meetings with heads of the Russian Far Eastern regions and businesses.
“We discussed about investment in the Far East region leading to greater economic opportunities and trade between the two countries,” Goyal said. Goa signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Kamchatka Territory on cooperation in coal production and tourism.
Uttar Pradesh and Zabaykalsky Territory signed a MoU on cooperation in agriculture and food production. Haryana concluded a document with the Sakhalin region on cooperation in oil and gas industry. Maharashtra and Buryatia signed a MoU on cooperation in machine building and tourism. Gujarat and Yakutia also agreed to cooperate in diamond production.
The Russian Far Eastern Federal University, which hosted meeting between Russian and Indian delegations, also signed a memorandum of understanding with the Amity University on mutual opening of representative offices and cooperation in education.
The National Skill Development Corporation also signed a MoU with Russia’s Far Eastern Agency.
The visit of the Indian delegation comes less than a month ahead of the Eastern Economic Forum, which will have Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the chief guest. Goyal voiced confidence that a dozen MoUs would be signed during Modi’s visit.
“When the prime minister will visit the EEF, we will have over a dozen MoUs that are planned to be executed at that time, some of which we are discussing today and will finalise over next 20 days,” he said.
While Goyal led the Indian side, Yury Trutnev, the presidential plenipotentiary envoy to Russian Far Eastern Federal District and deputy prime minister, headed the Russian delegation to the talks. Sectors like energy, processing and packaging, vocational training and higher education exchanges were discussed in the bilateral talks.
(UNI)
