India's President Ram Nath Kovind announced on Monday his country's trade with Russia has increased by almost a quarter in the first six months of this year.

“The early operationalization of the International North South Transport Corridor can play a significant role in achieving our bilateral trade targets,” the government press release said.

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The corridor the Indian president mentioned is a 7,200-km-long multi-mode network of ship, rail, and road routes for moving freight between India, Iran, Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Russia, Central Asia and Europe. The route involves moving cargoes from India, Iran, Azerbaijan, and Russia via ship, rail, and road.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi are in India at the 15th Russia-India-China (RIC) foreign minister level trilateral meeting.

At the moment, Russia is pushing to cut the share of the US dollar in its trading with India.

“In the light of anti-Russian sanctions, we see that working in dollars is a very risky thing. The dollar has ceased to be a safe currency. All those who work in dollars risk being subjected not only to the control of the American special services but also simply to lose their money," Russian presidential aide Sergey Glazyev said last week.

According to him, India is unaccustomed to using the ruble-rupee pair but understands it leads to new barriers to trade. However, he said that “the transition to national currencies will inevitably happen."