India and Myanmar on Saturday discussed ways to promote bilateral trade through their local currencies rupee and kyat. The issue was discussed during the meeting between Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and Kan Zaw, Myanmar's Minister of Investment and Foreign Economic Relations, on the sidelines of the 12th East Asia Summit Economic Ministers' Meeting at Vientiane, Laos. "Discussed potential cooperation in areas like lentils, diesel, gasoline, electric vehicles, etc and ways to promote bilateral trade including through Rupee-Kyat currency mechanism, between our nations," Goyal said in a post on social media platform X. India-Maynmar bilateral trade stood at USD 1.75 billion in 2023-24. India is looking at promoting trade in local currencies with various other countries including UAE, African nations and Russia. Local currency trading would reduce transaction costs by eliminating the need to convert currencies twice. In July 2022, the Reserve Bank of India introduced a