The Chinese government issued its first petroyuan-denominated long-term oil trading contracts in the spring of 2018, with the move posing an audacious challenge to the petrodollar - the powerful instrument of global trade and finance ensuring the US dollar's status as the de facto world reserve currency for over 50 years now.
Saudi minister of industry and mineral resources Bandar Al-Khorayef told the South China Morning Post this week that Riyadh is ready to “do what’s in its best interest” and “try new things,” including as far as the use of the petroyuan in settlements for crude oil are concerned.
The comments, made on the eve of Chinese Premier Li Qiang’s trip to Saudi Arabia and the UAE starting Wednesday to discuss expanded cooperation with the oil rich Gulf kingdoms, signal a "new dawn" in relations between China and Gulf powers, Dr. Wang Zhimin, director of the Institute of Globalization at China’s University of International Business and Economics, told Sputnik.
“In energy cooperation between China and the Middle East, settlements using the yuan have become an important topic. The expansion of the use of the currency in settlements for energy transactions is a gradual and long-term process that requires step-by-step reforms, opening up, and natural market selection. In addition, given the relationship with the United States, the process of using the yuan to settle cross-border oil transactions by countries such as Saudi Arabia may encounter certain difficulties,” Wang said, pointing to US efforts to shore up the petrodollar as Washington’s global economic hegemony fades.
Pointing to the trend of “dedollarization” in China-Middle East trade, Wang cited the currency swap agreement reached between Beijing and Riyadh last year, and interest in using the yuan for oil payments as a reflection of a “growing trend of diversification of the international monetary system, including the decline of the dollar’s share in international payments.”
Russian economist Nikita Maslennikov says the petroyuan has good prospects as a major alternative to the petrodollar, which could leave it accounting for up to 8% of global transactions by 2030, notwithstanding “strong pressure, including political pressure, from other market players," and other factors.
“Sooner or later a single BRICS settlement system will emerge, and Saudi Arabia is also going to be part of it,” Maslennikov said, noting that it’s “extremely difficult” to predict the future status of the petroyuan amid plans by some countries to forge ahead with an “energy transition,” and take other steps, like launching digital currencies, which could lead “to a significant adjustment of settlements in national currencies.”......more below
This is Your President and the ultra rich & influential...smh😡🤬
Ambassador Andrey Kelin said Moscow would treat NATO soldiers on the ground as a security threat
Russia will treat the deployment of NATO troops to Ukraine as a threat to its security, Russian Ambassador to the UK Andrey Kelin has said.
The diplomat rejected plans by the so-called Coalition of the Willing to send “peacekeepers” to Ukraine after a ceasefire is reached with Russia.
“We will not allow [the deployment] of any NATO member state’s troops on the territory of Ukraine because it will be another line of attack against Russia,” Kelin said in an interview with Channel 4 News aired on Wednesday. “We understand that Ukraine wants guarantees. We also need guarantees,” he added.
The diplomat said the presence of foreign troops on Ukrainian soil would be unacceptable. Asked about a Financial Times report that Ukraine and its European backers had agreed to deploy Western troops in the event of a violation of a potential ceasefire, Kelin said such plans were “dead.”
Kelin...
The Washington Post, owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, has begun a sweeping round of layoffs that will eliminate roughly one in three newsroom jobs, marking one of the most severe workforce reductions in the paper’s history.
Staff were informed on Wednesday that the cuts are part of what management described as a “broad strategic reset,” a move that will shutter entire departments, sharply reduce international coverage, and significantly restructure local and editorial operations.
Emails sent to employees on Wednesday morning indicated that about 300 of The Post’s roughly 800 journalists are expected to lose their jobs. Several staffers described the scale of the cuts as a “bloodbath.”
Employees were told they would be notified individually of their status and that those laid off would receive benefits through mid-April.
“These moves are painful,” Executive Editor Matt Murray said during a staff-wide call. “This is a tough day.”
Entire sections dismantled
According to Murray, the ...
