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Overview

India and the CIS region, two of the fastest growing economies of the world offer tremendous opportunities across various sectors to each other. Indian and countries of CIS have complementary resources and skills and can through joint collaboration be more effective in creating favourable conditions for sustainable development. CIS economies centred in a region with avenues of unexplored natural wealth and drivers of economic progress has been of growing interest for various businesses and countries across the world.

From its rich natural reserves and untapped resources to its economic advancements - CIS economies remain a one stop destination with varied opportunities. Strategically located at the convergence of Asia and Europe, CIS economies can play an important role to enhance trade facilitation and investment linkages across different countries of Asia and Europe. Reigniting our ancient trade links dating back to the silk route era to weaving new threads of economic complementarities is the future for development.

India has been investing heavily in the CIS region, from economies in Central Asia to the Russian Far East region. India’s total export with the various countries of CIS region stood at US$ 3.94 billion whereas total import from the region stood at US$ 51.56 billion during the year 2023-2024 (Apr-Jan).

Objective

Energy, trade and ensuring the security of Indian expatriates have traditionally been the key components of the India–Gulf relationship. India has a large stake in Gulf stability given that approximately 8.8 million Indian nationals reside in the region. The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is India’s largest regional-bloc trading partner.

Trade with the GCC comprised 15.8% of India’s total trade in FY2022–23, compared to 11.6% of total trade with the European Union. The UAE has consistently been India’s principal trading partner within the Gulf and is India’s third-largest trading partner overall, with Saudi Arabia in fourth place. However, despite India and the GCC announcing their intent to resume negotiations for a free-trade agreement (FTA) in November 2022, a deal has not yet materialised. The Conference will seek to promote and galvanize India-GULF linkages to leverage the potential of trade and investment to their true and immense potential.