Central American country wants to ditch dollar in Russia trade

Nicaragua wants to pay for Russian grain in national currencies, its foreign minister Denis Moncada told Sputnik on Thursday.

He said that the two countries have been discussing trade in rubles or cordoba in an effort to boost economic cooperation and shift away from Western currencies.

"It's a topic of conversations that is universal among friends that are fighting against US hegemony. These are necessary discussions. This mess started conversations that we're sustaining among our representatives and our banking representatives," Moncada said.

Moscow and Managua need to protect their sovereignty in the financial and banking sectors as well as in commercial transactions, the official said.

In September 2022, Nicaraguan finance minister Ivan Acosta told RIA news agency that his country intended to increase wheat imports from Russia and was open to discussing payment options.

Nicaragua also expressed interest in joining BRICS, the bloc of the largest developing economies that includes Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

"It's logical because it's a new way, new world, where developing countries can have better unity and have better development, a better world, a multipolar world," Moncada stated.

BRICS is pushing towards trade in national currencies and has begun efforts to establish a joint payment network to cut reliance on the Western financial system, and particularly on the dollar.

According to a number of experts including the former chairman of Goldman Sachs, Jim O'Neill, BRICS could in time and under certain circumstances challenge the status of the US dollar as the global reserve currency.

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