New Delhi. December 7. INTERFAX - Russia no longer uses the dollar in mutual settlements on arms deals, including with India, said the head of Rosoboronexport, Alexander Mikheev.
"By tradition, we call all transactions in dollars for the convenience of counting. In real work, Rosoboronexport has almost 100% moved away from calculating in US currency," Mikheev told reporters.
According to him, when working in national currencies, there is no risk of delays in payments when fulfilling contractual obligations.
"As for India, all settlements are conducted in rubles and rupees. In addition, we are actively practicing offset projects, which are also present in the contract documents signed today. This is a normal modern practice, one of the trends of the world market," Mikheev said
India is one of the main buyers of Russian weapons. The volume of the portfolio of Indian arms orders from Russia is about $ 15 billion, and since 1991, India has ordered weapons worth about $ 70 billion, the Federal Customs Service of the Russian Federation reported.
It was officially reported that in early October 2018, on the sidelines of the Russian-Indian negotiations at the highest level, a contract was signed for the supply of S-400 Triumph air defense systems to India (Almaz-Antey Concern of East Kazakhstan Region). Under the contract with a total value of $5.43 billion, India will receive five regimental sets of S-400.
On November 15, the head of Rosoboronexport, Alexander Mikheev, announced that the Russian Federation had begun supplying India with S-400 systems ahead of schedule, and the first regimental set would be shipped at the end of the year.