Russia-India trade more than doubles this year, says Kremlin ahead of SCO summit

Moscow, Sep 14

Ahead of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit this week where Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines, the Kremlin said that trade turnover between New Delhi and Moscow has soared nearly 120 per cent so far this year.

"Our relations are actively developing, the trade has also increased significantly with supplies of Russian oil, coal and fertilizers increasing," RT news quoted Kremlin foreign policy spokesman Yury Ushakov as saying to reporters in Moscow.

The Summit will take place on Thursday and Friday in the Uzbek city of Samarkand.

According to Ushakov, the two countries are currently working on bilateral measures to expand the use of national currencies, the ruble and the rupee, in mutual settlements.

Last month, New Delhi's Ambassador to Moscow Pavan Kapoor also noted that Russia-India trade turnover had been growing in both volume and scope in recent months, RT reported.

He added that businesses in both countries had been working to overcome the obstacles to closer cooperation posed by sanctions.

Moscow and New Delhi were reportedly discussing mutual acceptance of Russia's Mir and India's RuPay payment cards, as well as options to implement each other's interbank transfer services: India's Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and SPFS, the Russian alternative to SWIFT.

India has been boosting purchases of Russian crude over the past six months, while the US has repeatedly urged New Delhi to support a price cap on Russian oil.

However, India has been reluctant to join the Western sanctions on Moscow, placing domestic energy security above geopolitical conflicts

--IANS