At least 22 nations in talks with India to trade in rupee: FM

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that at least 22 countries are currently engaged in discussions with India to explore the possibility of conducting bilateral trade using the Indian Rupee (INR) as the preferred currency. This move signals a growing global interest in India's economic stability and its currency's potential as a viable medium of exchange. Talking to a news channel,Sitharaman said,“Also many of those countries are running short on dollar reserves, but yet their basic trade cannot be stopped." "So they see the Indian rupee as a stable currency," she added.
The minister also added that India better understands the needs of the developing world and its leadership aimed at bringing them aboard the global developmental agenda."And for achieving their development goals, they find it easy to talk to us about having rupee trade," she said. It must be noted that the de-dollarisation efforts have gained momentum around the world in the wake of the Russia-Ukraine war. Countries around the world have grown insecure over the West’s monopoly of the global trade system after it slapped unilateral  sanctions on Russia.The finance minister also hailed the historic G20 summit held in New Delhi last week as successful, adding that it gave hope for multilateralism.“The maturity with which Indian teams handled the G20 document at various stages makes it historic," Sitharaman said."The team that largely consisted of women did brilliant work. There was a spirit of cooperation among the countries," she said, adding, “The spirit with which we worked that gave of hope of multilateralism.”  
Earlier in March, according to media reports at least 18 nations had agreed to settle their bilateral trade with India in rupees. India’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of India, had allowed 18 nations, such as Germany, Singapore, Sri Lanka, UK, Kenya and many others, to conduct bilateral trade in rupee.In fact, India has already begun trading in rupees with many of its neighbouring countries like Nepal and Bhutan.
India’s Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Anupriya Patel had told Parliament in August that a significant part of the India-Nepal trade was being done in Indian rupees, according to reports. Also, all bilateral trade with Bhutan was also being conducted in rupees only."Rupee trade mechanism has been initiated to facilitate trade in national currency with Russia. As of July 2, RBI has approved 34 applications from different Russian banks for opening SRVA in 14 Indian commercial banks," the minister said in a written reply.

(Ira Singh, Asstt Editor)