India, EAEU review roadmap for proposed free trade agreement in goods

17 Nov 2025 Evaluate

With an aim to boost economic ties between India and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), the commerce ministry has said that they have reviewed the roadmap for their proposed free trade agreement in goods. On August 20 this year, India and the Eurasian Economic Union bloc inked terms of reference to start formal negotiations for a proposed free trade agreement. The ministry said that Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal had visited Moscow last week to hold talks with Minister in charge of Trade of the Eurasian Economic Commission Andrey Slepnev and Russian Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Mikhail Yurin. The five members of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) are Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia. The development is important as India is looking to diversify its export markets due to high tariffs imposed by the US. India and Russia also deliberated upon ways to boost bilateral trade to $100 billion by 2030.

It stated the commerce secretary also discussed ways to enhance trade diversification, supply-chain resilience and cooperation in critical minerals. It said ‘Both sides discussed a time-bound pathway across key sectors such as pharmaceuticals, telecom equipment, machinery, leather, automobiles and chemicals’, and added that quarterly regulator-to-regulator engagement was agreed upon to address certification requirements, listings of agricultural and marine businesses, prevention of monopolistic practices and other non-tariff issues. The dialogue also covered practical measures related to logistics, payments and standards to improve predictability and ease of doing business for firms in both countries.

With a combined GDP of about $6.5 trillion, the proposed free trade agreement is expected to expand market access for Indian exporters, support diversification into new sectors and geographies, enhance competitiveness against non-market economies, and deliver significant benefits to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). Russia is the top trading partner of India in the bloc, with bilateral trade worth $68.72 billion in 2024-25 (exports $4.88 billion and imports $63.84 billion). The high import numbers are because of crude oil imports. The bilateral trade with Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan was $315.18 million, $106.69 million, $349.48 million, and $56.78 million, respectively, in the last fiscal year.

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