India and Russia must de-dollarize to boost bilateral trade as the countries roll out mechanisms to achieve the targeted US$100 billion in mutual trade by 2030, according to Zlata Antusheva, Moscow’s trade representative to India.
She stated that “Russia is developing a mechanism to expand payments and settlements in local currencies with partner countries such as India. It is extremely important to create an independent system with the use of local currencies. 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, saying that ultimately “Our main goal is to de-dollarize and to focus on the development of our own currencies, of course, after some time, not only at the bilateral level but also at the regional level, at the BRICS level.”
The BRICS are responsible for about 24% of all global trade, while Russia and China have essentially eliminated the use of Western currencies in their bilateral trade.
Moscow is seeking to create a more useful mechanism to make life easier for businesses, Antusheva said, citing Sberbank, where businesses can now make a financial transaction in only 10 minutes. She also stressed the need for sovereign infrastructure to ensure technology independence, aligning with India’s self-reliance policy.
She added that an India-Russia AI Cybersecurity Center of Excellence is also in progress, stating that “it can connect the AI ecosystem between the two countries and then take it to the other BRICS nations.”
