Even as the Indian Embassy in Ukraine has asked all Indian citizens engaged in non-essential activities and Indian students to temporarily leave the country in the wake of Ukraine-Russia tensions, bilateral trade remained unaffected, industry representatives say. Though Russian invasion may change all that.
India-Ukraine trade during April-December 2021-22 touched $2.35 billion and the bilateral trade for the whole year was expected to be close to the all-time high of $2.73 billion registered in 2018-19. As a percentage of India's overall trade, Ukraine's share has remained more or less stagnant at less than 0.5%, commerce ministry data indicates.
India is Ukraine's largest export destination in the Asia-Pacific and the fifth largest overall export destination.
India maintains a trade deficit with Ukraine as the value of imports – mainly agricultural products, metallurgical products, plastics and polymers, etc are higher than the value of the export of products like pharmaceuticals, machinery, chemicals and food products. Leading Indian pharmaceutical companies have their representative offices in Ukraine. An Indian Pharmaceutical Manufacturers' Association is also active in that country. A representative of a leading pharmaceutical industry association said it is so far business as usual when it comes to drug exports from India to Ukraine.
India's exports to Ukraine during April-December 2021-22 were worth $372 million. The imports stood at $1.98 billion during the same period. In 2020-21, the value of India's total trade with Ukraine was $2.59 billion with imports alone accounting for $2.14 billion. In 2018-19, when the overall trade came close to $2.8 billion, India had imported $2.34 billion worth of goods from Ukraine.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) estimates that as of July 2020, there were about 18,000 Indian students studying in Ukraine, mainly in the field of medicine. Indian business professionals were predominantly associated with sectors like pharmaceuticals, IT, engineering, medicine and education, etc. The MEA also highlights the cultural relationship between both the countries. While yoga and Indian dance forms are appreciated in Ukraine, Indian film makers have been finding Ukraine as a location for their movies in recent years.
