Russian deputy prime minister and minister of industry and trade, Denis Valentinovich Manturov on Monday expressed his desire to boost trade with India in order to balance Russia's merchandise trade deficit with India.

"That's one of the issues which we just discussed with your colleague, so because of lack of input from India, it's not enough to use the Rupee so we need to boost the trade from India and then in this case we are looking at balance like for example, we have with China. We have $200 billion trade with China, and it's balanced," said Manturov on the India-Russia trade and payments issue.

India and Russia are discussing a free trade agreement, a move that would further deepen bilateral commercial ties that have flourished since war broke out in Ukraine.

Addressing the India-Russia business dialogue organised by industry body FICCI, EAM Jaishankar said, "There are understandable concerns about trade imbalance and we need to work with our Russian counterparts to address this imbalance. We should be honest about short and medium-term challenges. There could be over-compliance."

He further said that there is a need to motivate businesses on both sides.

"You can see that there are big changes going on like 'Make in India'. We are determined to make India a global manufacturing hub. I want to emphasise on the opportunity of 'Make in India'," Jaishankar added.

Notably, the China-Russia trade surge has increased the use of the Chinese renminbi. China's total exports to Russia grew to $76.12 billion in 2022, representing an increase of over 12 percent compared to a year earlier.

Russia's economy has been hit by Western sanctions due to its invasion of Ukraine, resulting in increased use of the Yuan.

The shift has made Russia a rare example of a country adopting the renminbi rather than the US dollar or euro as a reserve currency.

Russian President Vladimir Putin in March endorsed the broader international use of the renminbi. As he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping, he said that he supported "the use of the yuan in payments between Russia and countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America," reported TASS.

Image courtesy: Times of India