New Delhi, Aug. 23 -- External affairs minister S Jaishankar will visit Russia this week to co-chair a meeting of the Inter-Governmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technological and Cultural Cooperation (IRIGC-TEC), a key body overseeing bilateral relations. Jaishankar is visiting Russia during August 23-24 at the invitation of first deputy prime minister Denis Manturov, the external affairs ministry said on Saturday. Besides co-chairing the 27th session of the IRIGC-TEC, Jaishankar will meet Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov to discuss regional and global issues. India and Russia have two inter-governmental commissions, one for trade and technology-related issues and another for defence and military cooperation, and these are among the highest bilateral decision-making bodies. The India-Russia Inter-Governmental Commission on Military Technical Cooperation is expected to meet later in the year. At the last meeting of the IRIGC-TEC in Moscow in August 2025, the Indian side reiterated its concerns about the imbalance in two-way trade, driven largely by purchases of Russian energy while Indian exports have remained stagnant. Bilateral trade touched a record of $68.7 billion in 2024-25, though India's exports were worth only $4.88 billion.htc...