India Pushes Customs Union and Investment Projects in St. Pete

The Moscow Times
India and Russia made progress in forging a Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement between the Asian giant and the Customs Union of Belarus, Kazakhstan and the Russian Federation during the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.
“We should be able to get the concrete results [of the negotiations on the union] much sooner than expected,” said a senior Indian official who spoke on condition of anonymity, since he was not authorized to talk to the press.
The official added that India’s negotiations for a Free Trade Agreement with the European Union have already seen 17 rounds of talks and the two sides are nowhere near to closing a deal. “In contrast, the Indian negotiations for the Russia-led Customs Union should be much shorter, and India should become a full-fledged member of the body by 2014,” the official said.
Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma, who headed the Indian delegation to Russia’s northern capital, met with Viktor Khristenko, chairman of the Eurasian Economic Commission, on the sidelines of the forum and discussed the agreement on India’s role with the customs union.
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