Indian External Affairs Minister, Salman Khurshid, will visit Moscow from April 27-29 to co-chair the inter-session meeting of the Indo-Russian Inter-Governmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technological and Cultural Cooperation (IRIGC) with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, and the Deputy Prime Minister of Russia, Dmitry Rogozin.
Both sides will review bilateral ties, and deliberate on means to improve economic cooperation. Also likely on the agenda is a discussion on Russian investment for the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor, being built in collaboration with Japan. Furthermore, Khurshid is also expected to raise the issue of the signing of an India-Russia Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA).
This three-day visit is to lay the groundwork for the full-fledged 19th IRIGC meeting, to be held in Moscow – before the annual India-Russia summit, later this year.
India and Russia are stepping up their bilateral engagement. This is is the third high level visit from New Delhi to Moscow this month. Earlier in April, Indian Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, and Indian Commerce Minister Anand Sharma too visited the Russian capital.