India and Russia have agreed to raise the level of the Joint Working Group on Trade and Economic Cooperation to that of Deputy Minister or Commerce Secretary level and creating a mechanism to discuss and remove barriers to trade. They also agreed for creation of Working Groups on Agriculture and Pharmaceuticals. <br/><br/>External Affairs Minister, Sushma Swaraj and Russian Deputy Prime Minister, Dmitry Rogozin met in New Delhi yesterday. They co-chaired the meeting of the India-Russia Inter-Governmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technological and Cultural Cooperation (IRIGC-TEC). The two sides decided to actively promote inter-regional cooperation to harness untapped potential and expedite implementation of the Green Corridor for exchange of pre-arrival data between Customs Administrations of the two countries. <br/><br/>The IRIGC-TEC meeting noted the impressive growth of 22 percent in bilateral trade in 2016-17 and assessed the progress on issues concerning the most significant aspects of bilateral economic cooperation such as trade, economy, investment, industry, energy, transport, agriculture and space. The discussions also brought out action points for both sides which would assist in early realization of the full potential of this important relationship.<br/><br/>During his visit, the Russian Deputy Prime Minister also called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and met Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval. <br/>