OREANDA-NEWS Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made it a priority to bring trade and economic relations with Russia forward, Ambassador Shri Pavan Kapoor told RT on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok.

“Certainly, the Russian Far East has a special role in that whole approach,” the ambassador to Russia said, noting that there are a lot of prospects for cooperation.

“We have been working with Russia for 75 years … we will continue to work with our Russian friends, and we are making all efforts to see how we can assist each other, and will continue to do so not just in existing areas of cooperation but also in new ones when the opportunities arise.”

Kapoor noted that New Delhi has been looking at all available logistics opportunities, and Russia’s Northern Sea Route is one of them.

The diplomat also told RT that the central banks of India and Russia are working together to find ways to facilitate payment mechanisms.

“We have to realize that now usage of certain international currencies may not work in our bilateral trade, so we are going to find ways in which we can do these settlements in national currencies,” he explained.