Expressing Iran’s desire to trade with Russia in national currencies

According to the international service of Fars News Agency, the Russian news agency “Sputnik” reported, the Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Iran said that Tehran wants to trade with Russia in national currencies.

“Iran wants to trade with Russia in the national currencies of the two countries – the ruble and the toman – and there are already agreements and opportunities in this regard,” Mohsen Karimi, deputy governor of the Central Bank of Iran, told Sputnik today (Friday).

According to the report, Moscow took a major step this week to weaken the US dollar’s hegemony in world trade after urging countries that have imposed sanctions on Russia to buy natural gas in rubles. Iran also officially switched from the dollar to the euro for its foreign trade in 2018.

In this regard, Gita Gopinat, First Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, warned that sanctions imposed by Western countries against Russia could lead to the fragmentation of the world financial system and weaken the dominance of the US dollar in it. The IMF official believes that the extreme restrictive measures taken by Western countries after the start of Russia’s special operation in Ukraine may lead to the emergence of small currency blocks based on trade between certain groups of countries.

According to Sputnik, the volume of trade between Russia and Iran in 2021 reached a new record and exceeded the equivalent of $ 4 billion, of which Russian exports to Iran accounted for more than $ 3 billion and Russia’s imports from Iran to 967. $ 3. million, up 21.4 percent from a year earlier.

During a two-day visit to Moscow in January, Iranian President Ayatollah Seyyed Ibrahim Ra’isi said the two countries had discussed monetary and banking issues and agreed to remove trade barriers to increase trade to $ 10 billion a year. Raisi said the two countries could take steps to break the dollar’s dominance over monetary and banking relations and trade in the national currency.

According to the Russian news agency, about 80% of trade between Russia and the Islamic Republic of Iran is currently agricultural products; Russia exports grains and oilseeds to Iran and imports vegetables, fruits, dried fruits and nuts.

Russian officials have talked for years with their allies and partners about trading in national currencies, and the recent crisis in Moscow’s relations with the West following developments in Ukraine has given new impetus to this issue, with Russia’s trading partners in Asia, Africa and Latin America taking sides. There are conversations and consultations.

According to Fars, recently (April 4), the Iranian ambassador to Moscow said that Tehran was considering joining Russia’s banking messenger system to circumvent Swift sanctions. The Russian Financial Reporting System (SPFS) is designed to counter the risk of Russian banks losing access to the Swift system, RIA Novosti reported. “Iran is currently in talks to join the SPFS.”

The Islamic Republic of Iran was excluded from the Swift banking messenger system in 2012. Western countries have recently cut off access to the system by a number of Russian banks. “We are making efforts in this direction (connecting Iranian banks to the SPFS) in the future,” Kazem Jalali told RIA Novosti.

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