Overview
- News outlets report an Indian delegation is expected to visit Moscow later this month for the second round of talks on a proposed free-trade agreement with the Eurasian Economic Union.
- Negotiators are prioritising sanitary and phytosanitary rules and technical barriers to trade, which currently require complex testing, certification and labelling that raise costs and delay shipments.
- The draft pact reportedly runs to about 15 chapters focused on goods and customs facilitation and does not include a services chapter, limiting benefits for Indian services providers.
- Trade between India and Russia accounted for the bulk of India–EAEU commerce, with bilateral trade around $69 billion in 2024 and a joint aim to raise that to about $100 billion by 2030.
- Political strains inside the EAEU and wider geopolitical factors could complicate cohesion and timetables for the talks, so negotiators are concentrating first on practical regulatory fixes that can deliver quick export gains.