Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday on the sidelines of the 22nd Summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), a regional security bloc, to be held in Uzbekistan on September 15 and 16.
According to the media reports from Pakistan, its PM Shehbaz Sharif is also trying to meet President Putin, Modi, and Chinese President Xi Jinping, among others, during the event, being held at the ancient Silk Road city of Samarkand.
Putin and Modi will discuss trade and sales of Russian fertilizers and mutual food supplies, the Kremlin said on Tuesday.
“There are plans to discuss issues of ‘saturation’ of the Indian market with Russian fertilizers and bilateral food supplies,” it said in its handout of materials for the meeting.
“First of all, moves aimed at boosting bilateral trade flows will be looked at. The trade turnover reached USD 11.5 billion in the first half of 2022, up almost 120 percent year-on-year,” the Kremlin said, according to the media reports.
India’s fertilizer imports from Russia increased to USD 1.03 billion in April-July 2022, compared to USD 773.54 million in the previous fiscal year, until March 31, 2022.
Earlier this year, the challenging geopolitical situation hit India’s attempts to sign a long-term fertilizer import deal after Russia launched a “special military operation” in Ukraine on February 24. New Delhi hopes to sign a three-year fertilizer import deal with Moscow.
President Putin will also meet Chinese President Xi Jinping during the Summit.
Energy deficient, India and China are key buyers of Russian energy, which has helped cushion Moscow from the effects of waves of Western-led sanctions and allowed the two major Asian economies to secure raw materials at discounts compared to supplies from other countries. The two Asian nations have not publicly criticized Moscow’s actions in Ukraine, despite the outcry in the West.
India, which rarely bought Russian oil until February, has emerged as Moscow’s second-biggest oil customer after China. Refiners in India, the world’s third-biggest oil importer, and consumers are snapping up discounted Russian oil, shunned by some western countries and companies. According to reports, India is buying Russian crude at a discount of up to 30 percent.
The Group of Seven (G-7) countries may cap the price of Russian oil from December 5 to cut the price Russia receives for oil without reducing its petroleum exports to world markets. So far, India and China have not said if they will join the price cap mechanism.
India’s Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri last week said New Delhi would examine the issue when more details are available. Many conversations and proposals were taking place and “we will see who is taking part” in the price cap mechanism.
The SCO is an intergovernmental organization founded in Shanghai in June 2001. It currently comprises eight Member-States (China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Pakistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan), four Observer States interested in agreeing to full membership (Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran, and Mongolia), and six “Dialogue Partners” (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Turkey).
In 2021, the SCO started the accession process of Iran as a full member, and Egypt, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia became dialogue partners.
Since its inception in 2001, the SCO has mainly focused on regional security issues, and the fight against regional terrorism, ethnic separatism, and religious extremism.