Russia keen to build strategic financial outreach to India amid global economic shifts

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• Russia urges closer financial cooperation with India
• New financial system with national digital currencies planned
• Indian regulators support rupee-based cross-border settlements

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Senior Russian officials called for closer financial cooperation with India and outlined ambitions for a new international financial architecture driven by national and digital currencies, even as global markets remain volatile.

Addressing the Russia‑India Capital Markets Integration Forum in Mumbai, Sergey Glazyev, State Secretary of the Union State of Russia and Belarus, said Russia is seeking to overcome currency conversion barriers and expand participation in each other’s capital markets.

“We should create a new financial architecture which is based on national currency and international transparency and trust to each other,” Glazyev said, emphasising the need for integrated payment systems and eventual adoption of digital currencies in cross‑border trade and investment.

Glazyev framed his comments against a backdrop of ongoing global economic uncertainty, including conflict in the Middle East, asserting that power in the world economy would increasingly shift toward South and East Asia, with India emerging as a key player. “The focus of the world economy will shift to South and East Asia,” he said, linking broader geopolitical changes to the need for financial system innovation.

He highlighted that over the past four years, Russia has pivoted its trade from the West to the East, including greater use of national currencies with China and India, and full national-currency trade between Russia and Belarus.

“India is becoming one of the main players in the world economy,” Glazyev said. “The main centres will be China and India. Even with disruptions in the US and potential crises similar to 2008, including sanctions and war in the Middle East, we need to position ourselves to avoid these catastrophes.”

He stressed urgency in implementing these mechanisms: “We should complete this work as soon as possible. The next step is to integrate digital currencies and payment systems to enable seamless cross-border trade. Our longer-term objective is a worldwide digital currency to be used not only by Russia but also by our partners.”

Adding to this, Alexander Ageev, Director of the Institute for Economic Strategies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, highlighted the operational importance of local‑currency settlement mechanisms such as rupee‑based trade accounts. Ageev noted that reducing reliance on third‑party currencies can lower foreign exchange risks and facilitate smoother financial flows between nations — a common challenge highlighted by participants.

Indian regulators affirmed ongoing efforts to deepen financial ties. A senior official from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) present at the forum noted that frameworks permitting rupee‑based cross‑border settlements are in place, helping Indian trade partners settle export and import payments directly in local currency, and potentially reinvesting proceeds into financial markets and economic activities.

The forum also heard from Kamlesh Chandra Varshney, whole‑time member of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), who said that recent corrections in Indian equity markets following geopolitical volatility present an “attractive opportunity” for foreign investors registered as Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs), including those from Russia. SEBI has seen 23 Russian entities register as FPIs, providing access to Indian equity and debt markets.

Officials from both sides described the event as part of an evolving architecture of mutually beneficial economic and financial cooperation, with currency arrangements and capital market integration at the centre of plans to expand bilateral investment and trade resilience.