India as BRICS Chair May Push National Currency Trade: Russian Analyst

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India could play a key role in expanding national currency-based trade under its BRICS presidency in 2026, says Russian expert Yaroslav Lissovolik. He believes the focus should shift from a unified BRICS currency to boosting bilateral settlements, with the New Development Bank helping accelerate non-dollar trade channels among member nations.  #BRICS2026 #IndiaBRICSChair #NationalCurrencyTrade #GlobalEconomy #RussiaIndiaTies #NewDevelopmentBank #BRICSCurrency #GlobalFinance #World  🔊 LIKE ➡ SHARE ➡ SUBSCRIBE  📰 Breaking news. ⚡Live updates. 🔍 Trusted stories — all in one app. Download the Asianet News App today 👇 🍎 iOS: https://apps.apple.com/in/app/asianet-news-official/id1093450032 🤖 Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.vserv.asianet&hl=en_IN  For More Updates:  Follow us on our What's app Channel: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029Va5Bq3yKwqSLSQTxam0r  English: https://newsable.asianetnews.com/  Hindi: https://hindi.asianetnews.com/  Malayalam: https://www.asianetnews.com/  Kannada: https://kannada.asianetnews.com/  Tamil: https://tamil.asianetnews.com/  Telugu: https://telugu.asianetnews.com/  Bengali: https://bangla.asianetnews.com/  Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AsianetNewsa...  Follow us on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/AsianetNewsEN  Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ann.newsable/  ➡ If you like our video, give us a thumbs up and subscribe to our channel to get the daily dosage of news, entertainment, sports and more.

Transcript

00:00This is a crucial juncture in the development of economic ties between the two countries.

00:07We've seen in the past several years a very significant rise in mutual trade. Now this trade

00:14by the end of last year amounted to almost 70 billion dollars. The way to address this is to

00:24exploit all of the opportunities that are out there in mutual trade and not all of the opportunities

00:31I believe are fully exploited. Indeed the imbalance in mutual trade has been voiced as an issue as a

00:40concern by India. This is not just an imbalance with Russia this is an imbalance with some of the

00:49other BRICS economies that needs to be evaluated. Yaroslav thank you very much for speaking with

00:55ANI. I'll begin by asking you President Putin has arrived in India. It is his first visit after the

01:02Russia Ukraine war. First of all how do you see this visit by President Putin and Prime Minister Modi

01:08went personally to the airport to receive him. So how do you see the visit and how do you look at

01:13Russia-India relationship? Well first of all I think this is a crucial juncture in the development of

01:22economic ties between the two countries. We've seen in the past several years a very significant rise in

01:30mutual trade and trade turnover and now this trade by the end of last year amounted to almost 70 billion

01:42dollars and that's a very significant rise compared to the preceding years but there's clearly scope

01:50substantial scope for further growth and actually we see that policy makers in both countries are

02:03looking into setting more ambitious goals for mutual trade and some of the goals that have been

02:13thrown around in the past months have been close to 100 billion dollars as the mutual trade target

02:21for the two countries and that I think is very much feasible. There's tremendous potential

02:27and unexploited opportunities. We see that both countries are starting to cooperate more actively

02:34in various international forum whether this is the G20 or the BRICS and this cooperation is very productive. We see that

02:45this cooperation is giving significant results in terms of trade, in terms of investment, in terms of the overall

02:57spirit of economic cooperation even though relations between India and Russia and in the past the Soviet Union have

03:05always been friendly. There's always the possibility to further improve the past track record and certainly

03:20we're seeing that in terms of numbers but also in qualitative terms we're seeing that this relationship

03:27between the two countries is developing very productively, very constructively.

03:32Yeah and both leaders have also set the target of dollar 100 billion by 2030 I believe and you know

03:45there is Russian goods currently dominating Indian shares because

03:49they sell more to India than they buy and the Kremlin is now actively looking to correct the same balance.

03:58How do you think this can happen?

04:01Well I think the way to address this is to exploit all of the opportunities that are out there in mutual trade

04:09and not all of the opportunities I believe are fully exploited. Indeed the imbalance in mutual trade has been voiced as an issue, as a concern by

04:23India actually several months ago when there was an extraordinary meeting of BRICS economies

04:32and this was one of the very important statements that was delivered by India and I think

04:37certainly certainly whether this is in academic circles and researchers have to explore this issue

04:44because this is not just an imbalance with Russia this is an imbalance with some of the other BRICS economies

04:51that needs to be evaluated and I think some of the possible solutions include mutual trade liberalization,

05:02the possibility to look into greater presence of Indian goods in the markets of BRICS economies, whether this is agriculture,

05:12whether this is pharmaceuticals or other types of exports that are very strong and very important

05:20coming from India. But another sphere that I think may be quite important and that hasn't been really

05:29targeted to a greater degree before is services and the possibility to cooperate and trade in

05:40the services sector including in areas that have to do with IT, with AI related services.

05:50I think during this visit already

05:53the Russian president has already indicated that AI cooperation could be an important area and certainly

06:02we know that both in India and in Russia there are a lot of very qualified specialists in this field

06:11that are actually in demand in quite a lot of the countries across the globe and there is tremendous scope

06:19for cooperation in such areas I think that that can to some degree to a significant degree I believe even out

06:29these imbalances. I think these imbalances to a significant degree they reflect the lack of

06:36still a low base let's put it this way low base in terms of the overall volume of trade and the degree to which

06:44uh the trade opportunities are being exploited there is a lot more that that could be done on both sides

06:51and you know Russian President Vladimir Putin has also said that

06:55uh BRICS is not currently considering uh the introduction of a single currency for the bloc

07:01uh he said you know there is no need for haste and that could lead to serious mistakes by citing example

07:08the european union's adoption of the euro so how do you look at that

07:14well I think at this stage at this juncture uh I would agree that uh the focus uh should probably

07:22not be on on the BRICS single currency and the focus should certainly be on uh trade uh between BRICS

07:33countries that is undertaken uh with the use of national currencies and certainly I think uh Russia

07:40and other uh BRICS economies are very much open to um expanding the set of um channels through which

07:50uh the trade and uh is conducted with the use of national currencies I think development institutions

07:58including the new development bank of BRICS could play a role in boosting the use of national currencies

08:05um I think India next year during its BRICS chairmanship uh in terms of advancing the agenda of

08:14the use of uh national currencies and mutual trade and one of the possible solutions could be uh the

08:21initiative uh the initiative uh that was um uh coming from uh Russia uh back in 2024 when Russia proposed the

08:32system of uh transporter transnational settlements of national currencies uh that initiative uh perhaps

08:40could be explored in greater depth and discussed by the BRICS economies uh in uh 2026 uh when uh India

08:50takes over as the chair and BRICS right and what message do you think presidents put in with its sense

08:57about the current state of India Russia economic relationship especially uh amid global geopolitics

09:03shifts and given trump tariffs well I think uh it's it's very clear I think this relationship is uh going

09:11in the right direction we see it in the numbers we see it again in the in the atmosphere in which

09:20this summit is taking place this summit is taking place this is a very uh cordial relationship that has

09:27a rich history um of the past decades uh of constructive economic cooperation and despite whatever changes

09:37have swept across the globe have affected both India and Russia and the Soviet Union this relationship

09:45is developing developing developing at a fast clip and um I think uh uh this summit could uh be yet another

09:56milestone in in terms of new initiatives in terms of new measures that are directed at further deepening

10:03and uh broadening this uh this very constructive relationship for I think for the global economy as

10:10well not just for the two sides but also for the broader economy for the global south for um for BRICS um I

10:20think uh this is uh this is very important that this relationship is developing in the constructive way in

10:27which it has been um throughout uh all these years

10:38you

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