SAMARKAND, Uzbekistan (Reuters) – Leaders of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization agreed on Friday to take steps to increase the use of national currencies in trade between their countries, according to a joint declaration adopted on Friday.
The group – which includes China, India, Russia and Pakistan along with four Central Asian countries – said the “Shanghai Cooperation Organization member states” had agreed on a “road map for the gradual increase in the share of national currencies in reciprocal settlements” and called for expansion. of this practice.
No further details were provided and the group did not say who the “interested countries” were.
Moscow is seen as the main driver of the national currency rush as it tries to reduce its dependence on the US dollar and other Western currencies for trade after sweeping new Western sanctions were imposed in response to its invasion of Ukraine in February.
Russian gas producer Gazprom said last week that China would pay half of its supplies of Russian gas in rubles and the other half. Previous decades were denominated in the euro or dollar, the dominant reference currency in global oil trade.
And oil-producing Iran, like Russia which is subject to extensive international economic and financial sanctions, is on the cusp of joining the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.
