Talks on free trade zone with EAEU and India scheduled for autumn: Lavrov

SOCHI: The negotiations on the creation of a free trade zone with the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and India are scheduled for autumn, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said today after an informal summit between President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Narendra Modi here.

Prime Minister Modi and President Putin had productive discussions during their first ever informal summit in this Black Sea coastal city and the two leaders paid special attention to the economic talks.

"The negotiations on the creation of a free trade zone with the Eurasian Economic Union and India are already scheduled for autumn," Lavrov was quoted as saying by the state-run Russian news agency RIA Novosti.

During the talks, the two sides noted with satisfaction the completion of formalities in the contacts between the two sides, he said.

"These processes are organically associated with what is happening within the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) with the relations that are developing between our countries and the members of ASEAN," he said.

"This big Eurasian project, as Putin once designated it, goes from life, he does not slam the door to anyone and is open to all countries that are mutually beneficial in this vast geopolitical space, mutually beneficial to cooperate with each other," the minister said.

The two sides discussed the whole spectrum of their particularly privileged strategic partnership, the minister said. He cited data according to which the volume of mutual trade grew by almost 20 per cent last year, and in the first months of this year the increase was about 40 per cent.

Lavrov said the two leaders discussed in detail how to take steps to ensure the solid economic component of the summit, which is to be held in India in early October. He added that a detailed conversation was about energy. In particular, it was noted that over the past year, oil supplies to India increased 10 times.

"There are serious plans for further cooperation with our oil corporations, especially I mean Rosneft, which has seriously entered the Indian market," the Russian foreign minister said.

As for gas, he recalled that Gazprom updated its agreement with Indian partners for the supply of liquefied natural gas, in addition, there are "interesting plans" from Gazpromneft. According to Lavrov, the two leaders also discussed high-tech spheres, including nuclear energy.