India to partner with Russia for energy summit

New Delhi: The 9th LNG India Summit is all set to be held in the capital on September 24-25. The theme is significant, ‘Unleashing LNG Growth Drivers: Open policy, Infrastructure, CGDs, Transport, Industrial Sectors’. The partner country of this two-day summit is Russia, and it is being organised by Messe Frankfurt Trade Fairs India.

India is intensifying its efforts towards sustainable and clean fuel across the country, and to achieve this, it is backing infrastructure “not just in the mobility space but an all-round overhaul across industries”, according to a press statement.

The summit is expected to play a major role in “driving discussion around industry alignment, policy transformation and infrastructure development”.

All eyes will be on the insightful exchange of opinions and recommendations, especially since Russia is the partner country, which is in the midst of US President Donald Trump’s additional 25% tariff against India for purchasing Russian oil and which Trump and some of his close aides claim is fuelling and financing the Ukraine war.

Moscow is looking forward to the summit as one of the key international platforms for knowledge exchange and business networking in the LNG sector. The summit “covers strategic areas of the Indian LNG market development, government regulation, infrastructure, transportation solutions, and industrial applications,” they said.

Moscow views the summit as an opportunity, as Russian companies’ participation will offer “direct dialogue opportunities with Indian ministries and regulatory bodies, major market players and insight into potential supply prospects and joint projects in LNG imports, terminal construction, and the delivery of equipment, technologies, and services”.

It was just last month when Moscow had voiced its interest in exporting LNG also to India, besides crude oil, oil products and different types of coal. External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar was on a three-day visit to Moscow when Russia’s First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov not only assured the continuous supply of Russian oil and other energy but also said, “We see potential for exporting Russian LNG”.

Manturov’s statement came at the 26th session of the India-Russia Intergovernmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific-Technological and Cultural Cooperation, which he was co-chairing.

About eight months back, Indian companies were considering a proposal to scrap import duty on US-supplied LNG. After Qatar, which is India’s top LNG supplier, the US is the second biggest. India also imports LNG from the United Arab Emirates and Australia under bilateral agreements to meet its growing energy demand.

Prime Minister Modi visited the US in February, and a month later, reports suggested India was thinking of ending import tax on US LNG under a bilateral trade agreement, similar to the mechanism being followed with the UAE.

Scrapping the import tax, it is said, will make US LNG price competitive and reduce India’s trade surplus with the US, which was $45.4 billion last year.