US has imposed a lot of sanctions against Russia due to Russia-Ukrain war. Against this backdrop, Russian President Vladimir Putin adopted a new foreign policy this week, identifying China and India as its main allies on the world stage. Now, these three nations and a few others are working towards the formation of a new currency. This will be discussed in the BRICS summit to be held in August
The BRICS nations are Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. Several other countries have expressed interest in joining the economic bloc, including Argentina, Iran, Indonesia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt. South Africa will host the next BRICS summit in August.
According to reports quoting Russian lawmaker Alexander Babakov, the BRICS nations are in the process of creating a new medium for payments – established on a strategy that “does not defend the dollar or euro”. He reportedly indicated that the new currency would be secured by gold and other commodities such as rare-earth elements.
“Russia will continue to build up a particularly privileged strategic partnership with the Republic of India with a view to enhance and expand cooperation in all areas on a mutually beneficial basis and place special emphasis on increasing the volume of bilateral trade, strengthening investment and technological ties, and ensuring their resistance to destructive actions of unfriendly states and their alliances,” the statement said.
Recent Developments
Recently, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to adopt the Chinese yuan as a settlement currency with emerging economies. The Chinese government has also signed a bilateral deal with Brazil to facilitate trades using their national currencies.
India Russia Trade
As per Indian figures, bilateral trade during April 2020-March 2021 amounted USD 8.1 billion. Indian exports amounted USD 2.6 billion while imports from Russia amounted USD 5.48 billion. For the same period, as per Russian figures, bilateral trade amounted to USD 9.31 billion, with Indian exports amounting to USD 3.48 billion and imports amounting to USD 5.83 billion.