New Delhi: Ahead of his first official visit to New Delhi, Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe has said that he would want to see the Indian rupee used as much as the US dollar.“Just as East Asia, including countries like Japan, Korea and China, witnessed significant growth 75 years ago, it is now India’s turn, along with the Indian Ocean region,” Wickremesinghe said, while addressing the Indian CEO Forum in Colombo this week.“It makes no difference to us if India (the Indian rupee) becomes a common currency. We will have to figure out how to go about it. We must become more open to the outside world,” the president said.“The world is evolving and India is undergoing rapid development, particularly under Prime Minister Modi’s leadership,” he added.He also said that Sri Lanka benefits from its proximity to India, coupled with a rich history, cultural heritage and longstanding trading relationships spanning 2,500 years.To tackle its economic crisis, India had provided the island nation an assistance package of $4 billion.Also read: Explainer: How Feasible Is Rbi’s Push to Settle International Trade in Rupees?In April, Bloomberg reported that India will offer its currency as an alternative for trade to countries that are facing a shortage of dollars. The move was announced in the wake of the sharpest tightening in monetary policy by the US Federal Reserve in decades.In March, the Reserve Bank of India allowed 18 countries to open Special Vostro Rupee Accounts for settling payments in Indian rupees.While India is attempting to internationalise the rupee, and many countries have expressed interest in understanding the rupee trade mechanism, it is still to be seen how much global trade is happening in rupees.For instance, Observer Research Foundation noted that through bilateral agreements, the Indian rupee is an accepted currency in neighbouring Nepal and Bhutan, but these nations cannot use it for trading with a third nation.Moreover, earlier this month, a government official told Reuters that accumulation of the rupee is ‘not desirable’ for Russia. Therefore, Indian refiners, including Indian Oil Corp, have begun paying for some oil imports from Russia in Chinese yuan.
