Putin to the Shanghai Summit: 80% of Russia and China’s transactions are carried out in the ruble and yuan
Russian President Vladimir Putin said today, Tuesday, that 80% of trade between his country and China is carried out in the ruble and yuan, away from the US dollar.
Putin’s remarks were received, on the sidelines of his participation in a meeting of leaders of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which was held via video conference technology, and was detailed by the Russian news agency TASS.
The Russian President stated, according to the “Anatolia” agency, that 80% of commercial transactions between Moscow and Beijing are carried out in the ruble and the yuan, adding that “our dealings in the ruble with the countries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization exceeded 40%.”
The circle of countries looking for trade in currencies far from the dollar has expanded, which has become a tool in the hands of the White House to impose sanctions on economies that differ from it in its directions.
Putin added, “The indiscriminate rise in the debts of developed countries increases the risk of a new global crisis,” referring to the rise in global debt figures led by the United States, whose national debt reached $31.9 trillion.
Putin stressed that his country will continue to “resist” the sanctions and “external pressure” imposed on it since the start of its invasion of Ukraine in early 2022.
Reject trade protectionism
For his part, Chinese President Xi Jinping reiterated Beijing’s opposition to “protectionism” in economic relations.
In his speech to the organization’s virtual summit, according to Agence France-Presse, Jinping pledged that China would continue to “advance on the right path of economic globalization, oppose protectionism and unilateral sanctions, and expand concepts of national security,” in what appears to be an implicit reference to the restrictive measures taken by Washington towards Beijing in the past. Business areas, most notably modern technologies.
Last October, US President Joe Biden’s administration imposed export controls to limit China’s access to advanced chips, which it says could be used to make weapons, commit rights abuses, and improve the speed and accuracy of its military logistics.
Washington urged allies such as Japan and the Netherlands to follow suit, as the Dutch government announced at the end of last June that companies that produce machines for making advanced processor chips will be required to obtain an export license before selling them abroad, starting next September.
Iran membership
In the context, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a speech before the summit that he was “happy that Iran will become a member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization group.”
He added that the summit would also pave the way for Belarus to become a permanent member of the organization.
Last Friday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov announced that Iran would officially join the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.
“During the meeting of presidents on July 4, Iran’s full membership will be approved,” Lavrov said at the inauguration of the organization’s center in Moscow.
For his part, Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian expressed his confidence “that Iran’s final membership will be a renewed and growing ability at the disposal of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization,” according to a foreign ministry statement.
“Iran will enjoy all the rights related to the member states of the organization,” said Zhang Ming, Secretary-General of the organization, in a phone call with the Iranian minister.
Iran has been an observer member of the organization since 2005, and its last attempt to join it in 2020 failed as a result of Tajikistan’s refusal at the time. However, the member states returned and agreed in September 2021 to join Tehran, which at that time began a series of procedures that required up to two years, for membership to become official.
Iran is also seeking to join the BRICS, which includes South Africa, Brazil, China, India and Russia.
The Shanghai Organization was established in 2001 at the initiative of Russia, China and four countries in Central Asia, namely Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, as a political, security and economic union of countries occupying a large area of Eurasia, and India and Pakistan joined it in 2017.
The meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Organization is a platform for presenting the common aspirations of the member states and putting forward mature initiatives.
India chairs the meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which includes Russia, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, while Iran, Belarus and Mongolia were invited as observer countries.
(Anatolia, France Press, The New Arab)
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2023-07-04 11:29:35
