India may recognize Russia's Mir payment system

India may soon start accepting Russia’s Mir payment cards, the Indian Deccan Herald said on Sunday evening.

According to the newspaper, Moscow and New Delhi continue to discuss the option of bilateral financial relations, which would not be affected by the Western sanctions against Russia. The newspaper stressed that along with the recognition of Mir payment system in India, Russia, in turn, is likely to take steps to begin accepting Indian payment cards RuPay.

According to the newspaper’s souces, these issues were discussed during a recent visit to Moscow of Ajit Kumar Doval, National Security Advisor to the Prime Minister of India, on August 17 to 18. During his trip, he held talks with Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolay Patrushev and Russian Industry and Trade Minister Denis Manturov.

At the current stage, the parties are discussing options for the mutual implementation of interbank transfer services: the Indian ‘Unified Payments Interface’ and the Russian ‘Fast Payments System’. In addition, as the newspaper notes, the parties continue negotiations to expand the use of national currencies in bilateral trade payments, as well as discuss within the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) creation of a new reserve currency.