India and the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) trade bloc will commence negotiations on a free trade agreement in January, India’s foreign minister S. Jaishankar said on Thursday, December 28, following a meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov.
The EEU is an economic union of five former Soviet states - Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Russia - in an integrated single market.
An agreement with the bloc will open the lucrative Central Asian consumer market to Indian goods. It will also entrench the expansion of Indian products in Russia, which has suffered a flight of Western brands and goods after Russia attacked Ukraine early last year, government officials in India said.
Jaishankar said both sides had discussed proposals to increase connectivity between western India and Russia through the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC).
The INSTC was India’s grand plan to cut short the time taken for trade shipments to reach Russia and Europe, and enter the Central Asian markets, and vice versa. It incorporates thousands of kilometres of all-weather highways from the Iranian port of Chabahar in the south, through Azerbaijan in the north, and onwards to Russia and Europe.
