India and Russia must ‘de-dollarize’ to boost trade – Moscow

India and Russia must de-dollarize to boost bilateral trade as the countries roll out mechanisms to achieve the targeted $100 billion by 2030, a key Russian official told RT India.

Russia is developing a mechanism to expand payments and settlements in local currencies with partner countries such as India, Moscow’s trade representative to India, Zlata Antusheva, explained.

“It is extremely important to create an independent system with the use of local currencies,” she noted, pointing out that most of the payments between Russia and India are now “made in local currencies.”

Antusheva said that three Russian banks – Sberbank, Gazprom Bank, and VTB Bank – have operations in India. Alfa Bank, the biggest private bank in Russia, is likely to set up shop in the country soon.

Russia and China have essentially eliminated the use of Western currencies in bilateral trade.

“Our main goal is to de-dollarize and to focus on development of our own currencies, of course, after some time, not only (at) bilateral level but at the regional level, at the BRICS level,” she asserted.

Moscow is seeking to create a more useful mechanism to make life easier for businesses, she continued, citing Sberbank, where businesses can now make a financial transaction in only 10 minutes.

READ MORE: Russia-China trade almost 100% outside Western currencies – finance minister

The Russian trade representative said that the countries should focus more on the technology sector, electronics, artificial intelligence, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, and chemicals sectors.

Antusheva stressed the need for sovereign infrastructure to ensure technology independence, aligning with India’s self-reliance policy.

An India-Russia AI Cybersecurity Center of Excellence is also in the works, she noted, adding that it can connect the “AI ecosystem between the two countries, and then take it to the other BRICS nations.”