Sputnik News – Asia-Pacific countries are highly ready to switch to non-dollar mutual settlements, with African and Latin American nations also showing interest in discussing the matter, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Pankin said in an interview with Sputnik.
“Russia is developing enhanced cooperation on the matter with its partners from the Asia-Pacific region, where the readiness to switch to mutual settlements in national currencies or other currencies apart from the dollar is quite high. Many Latin American and African countries are also showing growing interest in discussing the possibility to increase the share of national currencies in mutual settlements with Russia,” Pankin said.
According to the diplomat, promotion of relevant effort within the Eurasian Economic Union and the Commonwealth of Independent States would be effective, as a certain level of integration has been already achieved and there is some experience in carrying out transactions in national currencies. Apart from that, Russia is engaged in dialogue with the BRICS nations, Pankin added.
Russia continues its effort to synchronize national payment systems with foreign nations, such as China and Japan, the deputy foreign minister went on to say.
The Russian government has repeatedly pointed out that Washington’s sanctions policy undermines confidence in the dollar, reduces national reserves investment in the US public debt, and contributes to increasing the volume of foreign trade in rubles and other currencies. At the same time, the Russian authorities assure that the de-dollarization policy does not envision a ban on dollar circulation, it only involves creation of economically beneficial conditions for the use of other currencies.
Russia Should Promote Interbank Payment Systems Serving as Alternative to SWIFT
It is important for Russia to promote interbank payment systems that would serve as alternatives to SWIFT and be independent of the United States, Alexander Pankin said.
“Promoting interbank systems for delivering payments and transferring information with the use of modern financial technologies and decisions, which would serve as an alternative to SWIFT and be independent of the US, is another important focus area,” Pankin said.
According to the diplomat, the Central Bank of Russia’s financial messaging system and the Moscow Exchange’s financial messaging platform Transit are gaining momentum, and Moscow is considering options to synchronize these developments with similar foreign systems, such as EU initiative on Single Euro Payments Area, Iran’s SEPAM, and China’s CUP and CIPS.
