During the valedictory session of the India-Russia Business Dialogue 2026 titled “Enhancing Russian Indian Trade and Industrial Partnership: Towards Greater Self-Reliance”, Mr. Piyush Goyal, Hon'ble Union Minister of Commerce & Industry, Government of India emphasized the need to translate the longstanding India–Russia relationship and strong political trust into concrete economic outcomes, greater trade diversification and deeper industrial and investment partnerships. The session was held on 10th September 2026, at the INNOPROM held in New Delhi.
“India offers scale, a rapidly expanding industrial manufacturing base, and a young, aspirational population willing to innovate, co-design and co-manufacture with our partners. Russia brings decades of engineering excellence to the table in aerospace, metallurgy, nuclear technology and mining. When these strengths meet, we do not merely trade, we build resilience into both our economies,” highlighted the Hon’ble Minister during his address.
He called for a shift “from protocols to production, from intent to industry”, leveraging India’s manufacturing scale, infrastructure, talent and market alongside Russia’s engineering and technological strengths to build a more resilient and mutually beneficial partnership. He emphasized the need to expand India’s non-energy lines for cooperation with Russia, noting how “rebalancing our trade through more diverse Indian exports, from pharmaceuticals to engineering goods, chemicals, textiles and food products, is central to achieving our shared goals.” Further, he also spoke of “fast-tracking a new Bilateral Investment Treaty to give investors on both sides the legal certainty that projects and businesses look for when finalizing investment destinations” adding how India and the Eurasian Economic Union have launched formal Free Trade Agreement negotiations last year and are committed to concluding them early, opening up new markets for MSMEs and industries.
Mr Anton Alikhanov, Hon’ble Minister of Industry and Trade of Russian Federation highlighted how “The world today is undergoing a structural transformation, and in this new reality, those who can combine their resources and competencies will prevail. Our countries undoubtedly have everything necessary for this. I am confident that we will be able to expand and fine-tune Russia-India industrial cooperation across every priority area ahead.” He emphasized the regular high-level political engagement and growing bilateral trade while pointing to the need to move beyond traditional trade towards technology-intensive industrial partnerships, joint manufacturing, localization and co-development. Key future areas of cooperation identified by him included civil aviation, rare and critical minerals, microelectronics, unmanned systems and digital technologies, with opportunities to combine Russian technological capabilities with India’s manufacturing strengths and market scale. He underscored the close alignment between Russia’s drive for technological self-reliance and India’s “Make in India” initiative, creating favourable conditions for joint projects.
Mr R Mukundan, President, CII highlighted the evolving potential for India–Russia industrial and economic cooperation, emphasizing the need to move beyond traditional trade towards manufacturing, technology collaboration, localization, innovation and joint value creation. India’s strong economic growth, expanding market and deepening manufacturing capabilities offer Russian companies opportunities to leverage India as a competitive manufacturing and innovation base. He asserted that “India's industrial growth is increasingly being driven by states and manufacturing clusters, and Russia's regions offer distinct capabilities and resources. Supplier and technology companies on both sides can cooperate even more, build industry-to-industry platforms, and identifying them and converting them into concrete projects is going to be the next critical step.”
The session was moderated by Mr Anton Atrashkin, Business Program Director, INNOPROM. The panel also included Mr Alexander Vedyakhin, First Deputy Chairman of the Executive Board, Sber; Mr Kirill Komarov, First Deputy CEO, Rosatom; Dr Vikramjit Singh Sahney, Chairman, Sun International Ltd & Co-Chair CII International Council; and Mr Kirill Lipa, CEO, TransMash Holding.
10 September 2026
New Delhi