Russia and China intend to strengthen cooperation between banks and increase the role of their currencies in joint trade settlements. According to the Reuters news agency, the First Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Government, Igor Šuvalov, made this statement. Moscow is trying to cushion the impact of anti-Russian economic sanctions imposed by the West over Russia’s controversial handling of the Ukraine crisis.
The economic cooperation pact that Shuvalov agreed with his Chinese counterpart Zhang Kaoli allows Russian banks to open accounts with Chinese financial institutions, among other things. But it also includes the wider use of the Russian ruble and Chinese yuan in mutual trade transactions.
“We will not break old contracts, which are mostly denominated in dollars,” Shuvalov said, according to Reuters. “However, we will encourage companies from both countries to make more settlements in their national currencies and thereby avoid using third country currencies,” he also said.
They asked for money for more than 30 projects
According to him, it was also about the proposals of Chinese companies to invest in more than 30 projects in Russia. They relate to building roads and bridges or agricultural production, with the value of some projects estimated to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Talks on mutual cooperation, particularly in the energy sector, should resume in October, when Chang visits Moscow, Shuvalov said as well.
Russia and China have been pushing for a smaller role for the US dollar in international trade for some time. For Moscow, the issue has become more pressing this year after the United States, European Union and several other Western countries imposed sanctions on Russia to punish it for allegedly supporting pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine, Reuters noted.
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