Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra said on Tuesday that a major thrust of India-Russia discussions during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Moscow was on economic engagement, including how to give a fillip to the Make in India mission.

He said a significant element of today’s discussions focused on connectivity corridors. The Prime Minister and President Vladimir Putin discussed the newly proposed Eastern Corridor which is called the Chennai-Vladivostok Eastern Corridor.

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The two leaders focused on important areas in the economic domain that link with the growth of different sectors in both countries, in particular fertilizer supply from Russia to India, which is directly linked to the production and the farmer’s yield in India.

The two leaders spoke about the need to move forward on the India –Eurasian Economic Union trade and Goods Agreement. “We have had one round of discussions between the two countries and it is expected that this will be expedited in months ahead. The two leaders have set a new trade target of 100 billion by 2030,” the Foreign Secretary said.

The Foreign Secretary said, “The Prime Minister strongly raised the issue of early discharge of Indian nationals who have been misled into the service of the Russian army.”

He said this was taken strongly by the PM, and the Russian side promised early discharge of all Indian nationals from the service of the Russian army.

In the nuclear energy field, the continuing cooperation on the Kudankulam nuclear power project units three to six was discussed between two leaders.

The agenda of the discussions between the two leaders was principally economic. It included elements relating to cooperation between the two countries in the political sphere, a larger space of economic engagement covering extensively trade, capital linkages, energy, science and technology, besides defence and security and the larger development of a situation regionally and globally. The two leaders reviewed the status of bilateral engagement and multilateral groupings including BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the United Nations.

Mr Kwatra said with regard to the delay in the spare parts of the defence equipment, it was raised by the PM, and both sides had a general sense of agreement that this would be expedited including through setting up joint venture partnerships in India to look at some of these spare parts, particularly the more critical spare parts.

When they spoke of defence, “I would not like to have a specific comment on the co-production of aircraft, but in the general space of defence, the larger domain of co-production was definitely emphasised by both leaders. We already have some good examples of co-production in the field of defence and we would very much like to build on that,” he said.

The Russian embassy here said Mr Putin had invited Mr Modi to the BRICS Summit in Kazan, which takes place in the Russian city from 22 to 24 October. Mr Modi has confirmed his trip.