India In Talks With 22 Countries To Trade In Rupee

Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has informed that about 22 nations are in talks with New Delhi, exploring possibilities of conducting bilateral trade in the Indian currency — rupee.

In an interview with the news channel NDTV, Sithraman said, "About 22 countries are negotiating and approaching us to see if bilateral trade can be held (in rupees). It is also many of those countries are running short on dollar reserves, but yet their basic trade cannot be stopped. So they see Indian rupee as a stable currency."

The minister also added that India understands the needs of the developing world in a better way, and its leadership aims at bringing all of them aboard the global developmental agenda.

India recently implemented a number of initiatives to promote the use of the Indian rupee for conducting overseas transactions. Through partnerships with banks from 22 different nations, the South Asian nation created special rupee vostro accounts within local banks, allowing the exchange of national currencies.

Earlier in July 2023, India had signed an agreement with the United Arab Emirates that allows it to settle trade in rupees instead of dollars, boosting the country's efforts to cut transaction costs by eliminating dollar conversions.

The finance minister also hailed the G20 summit held in New Delhi last week as a successful event, 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 a brilliant work. The spirit with which we worked, that gave a hope of multilateralism," she added.