The exchange rate for transactions with ‘friendly’ countries is still calculated through the greenback
Moscow is looking for ways to unpeg settlements with foreign partners from the US dollar, RBK reported on Saturday, citing sources in the financial market and the government.
Russia has stepped up efforts to switch international settlements to national currencies after a number of Western nations placed sanctions on the country earlier this year in connection with the conflict in Ukraine. As sanctions jeopardized Russia’s transactions in euros and the dollar, these currencies have been deemed compromised.
However, the exchange rate used in cross-border trade in local currencies is still calculated through the dollar. For example, when determining the ruble-tenge rate, the rate of the Kazakh currency is calculated through the dollar to determine the ruble price of a tenge and vice versa.
RBK’s sources say that Russia’s Central Bank and Finance Ministry are now working together with banks on a mechanism that would allow Russia to set prices for foreign contracts using new indicators that don’t take into account the dollar exchange rate.
One way is to create a basket of currencies that would presumably be pegged to one another. Another option is to introduce a new payment unit for foreign trade contracts, the value of which would be pegged to commodities such as gold and other precious metals. In that case, the exchange rate world depend on the average prices of these commodities in global markets.
A third option on the table is simply to peg the national currencies to gold or oil. However, this may also be problematic because both oil and gold are priced in dollars.
One source told RBK that the exchange rate in foreign trade contracts could be calculated using the Chinese yuan instead of the dollar, as China has not sided with the West in the sanctions war against Russia. However, the yuan is not a freely convertible currency and Beijing’s consent would be required for the mechanism to be implemented.
https://www.rt.com/business/566816-russia-decouple-national-currencies-dollar/
Any moment now I am expecting John Cleese (a veteran of Monty Python) to jump out of the bushes and announce the creation of the Ministry of Silly Wars, with Donald Trump as the deranged leader. For you youngsters out there, Monty Python’s skit, The Ministry of Silly Walks, helped make the members of MP legends. I had to reference Monty Python because the line of bullshit the Trump administration is feeding the American people and the world about the amazing, obliterating US attack on Iranian nuclear sites on Sunday morning, is more ridiculous that all of the silly walks pictured in the following video:
My hopes that Donald Trump would finally act like a responsible adult are dashed. He’s a dangerous buffoon. While the team around him are working frantically to maintain the fiction that Trump has a vision and is calling the shots on the foreign policy front, he is careening around the globe like an out-of-control cue ball on a billiards table. It started a week ago… first, he claimed...
Tuesday marks the third anniversary of the launch of the Fujian, China's first aircraft carrier equipped with electromagnetic catapults. Official media said China is about to enter a three-aircraft-carrier era, with the Fujian expected to enter service by 2025.
After the launch of the Fujian on June 17, 2022, it carried out its first sea trial from May 1 to 8 in 2024. Since then, the Fujian has completed multiple sea trials, accumulating more than 100 days of sea trial, China Central Television (CCTV) News reported on Tuesday.
Wei Dongxu, a Chinese military affairs commentator, said that the aircraft carrier Fujian has been making steady progress in sea trials, and is expected to be commissioned within this year, CCTV News reported.
With a full displacement of more than 80,000 tons, the Fujian is the world's first conventionally powered aircraft carrier to feature electromagnetic catapult technologies, according to CCTV News. The report noted that it will carry a wide variety of carrier-borne...
Chinese President Xi Jinping said Tuesday that China and Central Asian countries have explored and formed the China-Central Asia Spirit, which features mutual respect, mutual trust, mutual benefit, mutual assistance, and the pursuit of common modernization through high-quality development.
Xi made the remarks in his speech at the second China-Central Asia Summit in the Kazakh capital of Astana.
Xi said that the Chinese side has decided to establish three cooperation centers and a trade facilitation platform within the China-Central Asia cooperation mechanism.
When addressing the summit, Xi said these institutions include the China-Central Asia poverty reduction cooperation center, the China-Central Asia education exchange cooperation center, the China-Central Asia desertification control cooperation center, as well as the China-Central Asia trade facilitation cooperation....more below
