The two leading Shanghai Cooperation Organization countries as well as other members are serious about switching to settlements in national currencies, said Bakhtiyor Khakimov, Special Envoy of the President of Russia for Organization Affairs, Ambassador-at-Large of the Russian Foreign Ministry.
“However, this issue takes time, as this is not an easy task,” the ambassador said. He noted that we are not talking about creating a single SCO currency”.
“The roadmap for the gradual increase in the share of national currencies in mutual settlements, adopted at the SCO summit in Samarkand, clearly spells out all the stages. Therefore, I do not think that this process will be accelerated, but the mood is serious,” Khakimov emphasized.
He drew attention to the fact that the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank of Russia, together with VEB Russia, participated in the development of the roadmap. It was prepared not from scratch, but taking into account the experience that exists in bilateral relations.
“Russia and China are actively using the ruble and yuan in bilateral trade. There are such examples in relations with other states. Therefore, the road map is the basis for solving this problem in the format of interested states,” the diplomat explained.
As before, to a large extent, the economies of the SCO member states are tied to the world currency, and so far there is no getting away from this, Khakimov said.
The SCO includes 9 leading Asian countries, including China, Russia, India, Pakistan, four countries of Central Asia and, starting from 2022, Iran. The organization was founded in 2001 in Shanghai.
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Oct. 4, 2022