ASEAN Countries Arrange Trade in Local Currencies

March 30, 2023, 2022 (EIRNS)—The Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors of the ten-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are meeting over March 28-31 in in Bali, Indonesia, including to work out a Local Currency Transaction scheme, reported Dezan Shira & Associates ASEAN Briefing. As of March 28, they are investigating making financial transactions in local currencies, and to avoid their previous dependence on the dollar, euro, yen and pound, according to a press release from the Indonesian ASEAN chairmanship website. The Indonesian press release explained that an example of the meeting’s Rebuilding Pillar “is efforts to reduce dependence on major currencies through the Local Currency Transaction scheme, which is an extension of the previous Local Currency Settlement scheme which has begun to be implemented between ASEAN countries.”

A day earlier, Indonesia’s banking regulator had stated that the Bank of Indonesia plans to introduce its own domestic payment system. Indonesian President Joko Widodo has argued, further, that Indonesia needs to learn, from the U.S. and EU sanctions targeting Russia’s financial sector, to protect itself from “possible geopolitical repercussions.” The most notable such repercussion may be the Washington and Brussels’ naked seizure of Russian foreign reserves.