Russia and Qatar work on switching to trade in national currencies – envoy

Moscow has proposed to Doha a switch to the use of national currencies in trade settlements, Russian Ambassador to Qatar Dmitry Dogadkin has said, adding that the sides are already working on the idea.

“Our cooperation in investments is expanding. We are successfully developing our partnership with the Russian Direct Investment Fund. A number of joint projects worth more than 160 billion rubles, or 7.2 billion Qatari riyals ($1.9 billion), are being worked on,” Dogadkin told news agency Sputnik on Monday.

The ambassador said that Russia-Qatar trade has been growing and reached $19.23 million in the first quarter of 2023.

He said Moscow and Doha consider cooperation in the area of transportation and logistics to be a promising joint project, particularly in the implementation of the International North-South Transport Corridor.

Russia’s trade with countries of the Persian Gulf has been soaring despite global geopolitical tensions as various countries take steps to expand economic ties, including working on alternate payment mechanisms that would bypass the US dollar, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated earlier.

Following the imposition of sanctions, Russia and its trading partners among developing nations have intensified efforts to reduce the use of the Western financial system and replace the US dollar and the euro with national currencies for trade settlements.

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