India, Russia explore rupee-rouble trade

Tribune News Service

Sandeep Dikshit
New Delhi, April 1

India is learnt to be planning to set up a dedicated payment mechanism to sidestep western sanctions in its trade with Russia. It will enable payment for existing trade obligations as well as pave way for cheaper oil and gas imports amid the spiralling fuel prices in India.

Bypassing Dollar

Transactions will be done using national currencies and bypassing dollar-based systems. Sergey Lavrov, Russian Minister

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who met Prime Minister Narendra Modi here today, said “more and more transactions would be done using national currencies and bypassing dollar-based systems”.

The attempt at setting new trade terms came as PM Modi conveyed to Lavrov India’s readiness to contribute in any way to the peace efforts in the conflict in Ukraine. The PM also reiterated his call for an early cessation of violence in the meeting with Lavrov, who rounded up his brief stay with an extensive meeting with his counterpart S Jaishankar. Speaking to the media, Lavrov said he had discussed the holding of the next meeting of the Indo-Russia Inter-Governmental Commission for Trade, Economic, Scientific & Cultural Cooperation (IRIGC-TEC), a premier government-to-government mechanism to guide bilateral economic cooperation. Soon after holding talks with Jaishankar, he welcomed India’s role in mediation and said New Delhi had not been involved so far unlike Israel and Turkey.

The need for “mutual interest and the search for balance of interests will prevail in future as well,” he said in a hint at the neutral position taken by India and several other developing countries.

“More and more transactions will be done using national currencies and bypassing dollar-based systems,” he hoped while underlining Moscow’s readiness to provide anything that India wanted. New Delhi, he said, was one of the key priorities for Moscow based on principles of equality and mutual trust. “We are interested in having a balanced world order, which makes it sustainable,” he said. Lavrov said Russia appreciated India’s stand. “We do not hide anything and appreciate India’s view after studying the entirety of facts and not just in a one-sided way,” he added. Jaishankar’s opening remarks were more matter of fact. “Our meeting takes place in a difficult international environment quite apart from the pandemic. India has always been in favour of resolving differences and disputes through dialogue and diplomacy,’’ he observed.

Jaishankar underlined that as a developing economy, India was especially concerned about global volatility in different domains, said the MEA. “It is important for both countries that their economic and technological contacts remain stable and predictable. Differences and disputes should be resolved through dialogue and diplomacy and by respect for international law...,” it observed.

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