Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal on Monday said that the nation would use the G20 platform to further advance the cross-border trade settlement in rupee with the participating nations.

He further stated that the nations that are experiencing troubles with a specific currency or a basket of currencies and are trying to get out of the issues would be the focus of the discussion.

In response to a query on whether India will use the G20 platform to increase rupee trade, Barthwal remarked, “We are interested in improving the trade with respect to the currencies of the countries that are trading (with India). Definitely, we would like to see that rupee trade also happens, particularly with those countries which are facing (currency) issues.”

He addressed the media just a day before the inauguration of the Trade and Investment Working Group (TIWG) meeting of India's G20 Presidency to be conducted in Mumbai from March 28 to 30.

The G20 Presidency is held by India from December 1, 2022, to November 30, 2023.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) built a system to settle international commerce in rupees in July of last year to support the growing interest of the world trading community in the rupee and to encourage the expansion of global trade with a focus on exports from India. On March 14, State Minister for Finance Bhagwat Karad informed Rajya Sabha that India's central bank, i.e., RBI, had granted authorisation to domestic and foreign Authorised Dealer (AD) banks in 60 cases demanded from 18 different nations for the opening of Special Rupee Vostro Accounts of correspondent banks.

A Vostro account is one that a correspondent bank manages on another bank's behalf.

Almost 100 delegates from G20 member nations, invitee nations, regional groups, and international organisations will participate in discussions to intensify international trade and investment at the three-day TIWG summit.

Trade financing promotes economic expansion and is essential for preserving global trade flows and reducing risks from tight liquidity. Nearly 80 percent of all global trading uses certain trade finance instruments, among these, such as supply chain financing, letter of credit, invoice discounting, and receivables financing.

The G20 members make up approximately two-thirds of the world's population, over 75% of global trade, and about 85% of the world's GDP.