CHENNAI: The bilateral trade between India and Russia, which was around $10 billion, has quadrupled and reached $ 44.4 billion during the current financial year, said Union Shipping Minister Sarbananda Sonowal. Speaking to the reporters after inaugurating the India-Russia workshop in Chennai for the operationalisation of the Eastern Maritime Corridor (EMC) on Wednesday, he added that the EMC will be operationalised not just between Vladivostok and Chennai, but from all east coast ports of the country to the Far East ports of Russia.
Flanked by Russian Deputy Minister for the Development of the Far East and the Artic Anatoly Yuryevich Bobrakov, Shipping secretary T K Ramachandran, Chennai Port Authority Chairman Sunil Paliwal and Consul General of the Russian Federation in Chennai Oleg Avdeev, the minister said that a study conducted by Chennai Port has identified five commodities—coal, crude oil, LNG, fertilisers and containers— which will benefit India with the operationalisation of EMC.
“Energy, agriculture and manufacturing sectors will gain from reduced energy and logistics costs and improved export competitiveness. India is targeting 20 million metric tonnes per annum (MMTPA) of coking coal, 8 MMTPA of crude, 3 MMTPA of LNG, 1.5 MMTPA of fertilizers and 227, 725 TEUs of containers through EMC by the year 2042,” he said.
He said India is focusing on establishing trade corridors and pushing infrastructure development at the ports to meet the demand. The EMC will not only benefit Chennai Port but also Kamarajar, Kattupulli, Kolkata and VOC ports. Though the EMC passes through the South China Sea, which has multiple territorial disputes involving China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei, Sonowal said that it is a safe shipping route.
Bobrakov said that the trade with India through the port of Vladivostok was 150 million tonnes and Russia wants to double the trade. “Linking of Chennai with Vladivostok and other Far East ports will help in doubling the trade,” he said.
Bobrakov added that Russia is keen on the integrated development of the Arctic and the North Sea route (NSR) as a year-round transport and logistics route. To ensure sustainable and environmentally responsible shipping along the NSR, on the initiative of Rosatom, the Marine Research Center of M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University has been implementing a program of the NSR environmental monitoring from 2021. The next workshop is scheduled to be conducted in Russia in September.