Russian PM, minister for Far East & Arctic to attend Vibrant Gujarat Summit

INDIA: Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, Russian minister for Development of the Russian Far East and Arctic Alexei Chekunkov and governors of Russian Far East will participate in the Vibrant Gujarat Summit that will take place in Gandhinagar next month.

Four governors of Far East Provinces of Russia will participate in the summit that will take place from January 10 to 12.

The biennial investors' summit which is the tenth edition will see a roundtable on the first day itself with governors and heads of far eastern federal districts of the Russian Federation taking part.

The roundtable is expected to be chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

A readout on the event from the official website of the summit says the roundtable will "further boost the bilateral cooperation and enhancing collaboration in trade, commerce, and investments."

The focus on Russian Far East, an area rich in mineral resources at the summit comes even has there has been greater engagement from India.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had visited Vladivostok in 2019 which is the region's second-largest city and had spoken at the 5th Eastern Economic Summit.

During the visit, PM Modi had announced $1 billion line of credit to the Russian Far East to develop the region.

That same year saw trade minister Piyush Goyal leading a high-power delegation of chief ministers of Haryana, Gujrat, Uttar Pradesh and Goa and about 140 Indian companies to Vladivostok to increase business engagement.

The presence of the ministry for the development of the Russian Far East and Arctic is another stand-out.

Minvostokrazvitiya as it is known is a Russian executive body that coordinates in the Far Eastern federal district the implementation of state programmes and federal targeted programmes.

Around five heads of state will be participating at the summit. Italy is the partner country for the mega investor meet.

The summit will witness special country sessions for Australia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Mozambique, UK, Japan, Sweden, Norway, South Korea.

The sessions are also on the business environment in Latvia and doing business in Africa. Since the meet takes place amid the COVID-19 crisis, the number of COVID-19 protocols have been put in place. These include entry to venues only on basis of a fully vaccinated certificate.