MOSCOW, February 14. /TASS/. Sanctions against Russia acted as a catalyst for the expansion of trade relations between Moscow and New Delhi, Russia’s Ambassador to New Delhi Denis Alipov said in an interview with Channel One.
"As for the explosive, record-breaking expansion of our cooperation in the energy sphere, our oil supplies, we could say that the sanctions that were imposed and expanded against us had the opposite impact and acted as a catalyst for our trade relations," Alipov said.
He added he believes that the two countries are interested in preserving this relationship and added that in addition to oil, the parties have "a very broad and comprehensive cooperation, especially in economy and trade."
The ambassador told TASS earlier that Russian-Indian trade and economic cooperation has been evolving steadfastly despite Western sanctions. "Cooperation [in the trade and economic sphere] is developing steadily and fairly vigorously, even despite the obstacles put forward by the anti-Russian sanctions war. On some fronts, it's even better than expected," the ambassador noted.
According to Indian statistics, the volume of bilateral trade soared 3.4 times to a record-breaking $35 bln in 11 months of the last year, the Russian diplomat said. "Supplies of oil, coal and metals from Russia accounted for the lion’s share, [amounting to] $32 bln," Alipov disclosed.