India Never Targeted US Dollar: Jaishankar

Washington, Oct 1 (PTI) India has never actively targeted the dollar and that's not part of its economic, political or strategic policy, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said Tuesday, noting that some of the American policies make it difficult for New Delhi to have dollar-trade with some of its trading partners.

Jaishankar was responding to a question on de-dollarisation at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a top American think-tank.

"…ask you about de-dollarisation as a possibility for the world. At times India has expressed interest in alternative currency. It can serve as a reserve mechanism. I wonder how do you see that right now what you see as the role of the dollar and these discussions about your national policy?” he was asked.

"I think you have us confused for someone else because we have never actively targeted the dollar. That's not part of either our economic policy or our political or strategic policy. Some others may have,” Jaishankar responded and then explained India's concerns about the dollar.

“What I will tell you is a natural concern there. We often have trade partners who do not have dollars to take. So, we now have to look at whether we forgo dealings with them or do we find some settlement which works otherwise. So, there's no, I can say malicious intent vis-a-vis the dollar in business. We are trying to do our business,” Jaishankar said.

“Sometimes you make it difficult in the use of dollars. We have some trade partners with whom trade in dollars becomes difficult because of your policies. We have to look for workarounds. But for us, as we spoke about rebalancing, we spoke about multiple obviously all of this is also going to reflect on currencies and economic needs,” he said.