Tehran and Beijing are determined to find ways to avoid using the US dollar as a settlement currency in trade, according to a report by Iranian economic daily Financial Tribune.
The topic of de-dollarization was raised at a meeting between leading Chinese government political adviser Chen Yuan and Iranian central bank officials in Tehran.
“Rial-yuan’s bilateral monetary agreement can have a significant role in increasing the volume of trade between the two countries and in this regard, we have conducted a series of negotiations with the central bank of the Republic of China’s president,” said the Central Bank of Iran’s Governor Valiollah Seif.
Tehran has been pursuing the goal of eliminating the dollar in its trade, and has been trying to sign currency swap agreements with a few target countries.
Chen said that Iran and China should develop their banking links and also underlined the unfairness of the existing financial system, dominated by a few developed countries. He added, other nations would do better if the unfair system is eliminated.
“We could use the experiences of European countries in establishing the euro as a common currency between many countries, which is not exclusively controlled by a single country. But until then, we need to utilize the maximum available capacities to expand our banking relations,” he was quoted as saying by the Iranian daily.
However, any such initiatives require time and effort by several countries, the Chinese official said.