Russian-Chinese Mutual Currency Trade To Expand

May 23, 2023, 2022 (EIRNS)—Interfax reports that Russia and China will increase their bilateral trade and broaden the use of national currencies in their transactions in 2023. Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, speaking at a Russia-China business forum in Shanghai, stated, “I am confident that this year we will accomplish the task set by heads of state—Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping—to raise mutual trade to $200 billion.”

China-Russia bilateral trade increased by “almost a quarter to approximately $52 billion” in the first quarter of the year, he said. China has been Russia’s main trading partner for more than a decade already, he noted. “And our positions in China’s equivalent rating also changed in the first three months of this year—we went up to seventh place from tenth place.”

“This growth has been accompanied by important qualitative transformations, and above all, by a reduction in dependence on the dollar and other Western currencies,” he said. “While in 2021 national currencies were used in only about a quarter of all transactions between our countries, it was already two-thirds last year. And we will continue to enhance the independence of [our] bilateral financial cooperation, and thus strengthen our economic sovereignty,”

Mishustin said.