Indo-Russia Talks Open Doors to Energy Cooperation, Hydrocarbon Production

India’s Minister of External Affairs S. Jaishankar held talks with Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Moscow about cooperation in several areas, including energy. In furtherance of the discussions held. India and Russia will explore energy-related projects in the Arctic shelf and the Russian Far East.

“We are seeing growing concerns on energy and food security from the conflict that are coming on top of severe stresses created by two years of Covid. The Global South, especially, is feeling this pain very acutely,” the Indian minister stated.

The two ministers will also discuss the present-day international issues while placing an emphasis on exchanging interactions within the UN, SCO, G20 and RIC.

“We pointed out good prospects for cooperation in the energy sector, including an increase in exports of hydrocarbons from Russia to the Indian market and mutual participation in projects for their production, including in the Far East and on the Arctic shelf of the Russian Federation,” Russia’s minister added further.

Jaishankar spoke about the strong bilateral partnership between the two countries that has only gained momentum over the years. “Notably, our energy and fertiliser cooperation has been strengthening and our achievements of the last few years have become a foundation to do more. Foreign Minister Lavrov of course has spoken about some of these issues in his remarks,” he said while adding that the deliberations between the two ministers were also about the rising challenge of climate change.

Indo-Russia Potential on Partnership in Energy

In year 2019, India issued a credit line worth US$ 1 billion aiming at the development of the Russian Far East region, where the two countries will now explore opportunities in the field of energy. Notably, Indian government is already mulling over augmenting its stakes in Russian energy projects. India’s ONGC Videsh Limited already has 100 per cent stake in the Russian firm Imperial Energy Corporation.

As several western firms withdraw from Russia-based projects in the wake of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, experts hold that India could stand to gain from investing in energy projects in Russia.