Take A Backseat USD, Putin and Jinping Announce Yuan For Global Trade
In a ceremony at the Kremlin, and on the second day of Chinese leader's Xi Jinping's visit, Putin and Xi kicked off formal talks which will focus on the Ukraine crisis. They shook hands and stood side by side as their respective national anthems played, aired on state television. Following the meeting, they held a joint press conference, to be followed by a state dinner at the Kremlin.
Last night's greeting and starting 'informal' talks lasted about 4-and-a-half hours. In addition to Ukraine being high on the agenda for the ongoing summit, Xi outlined in initial comments Tuesday that China wishes to expand cooperation with Russia on trade, and hopes that Russia promotes liberalization, facilitation of trade and investment, alongside both sides maintaining security and stability of industrial and supply chains. Importantly, Xi invited Putin to travel to China at some point this year. Putin showed willingness on these points, also stressing that Russia stands ready to meet China's growing energy needs.
Putin also said his country stands ready to support Chinese business replacing Western companies inside Russia that left in the wake of the Ukraine war. "We are ready to support Chinese business in replacing Western enterprises that left Russia," Putin said.
But among the most important statements to come out of the day's formal China-Russia summit and press conference was concerning the further erasing of dollar-reliance in favor of the yuan. Putin said, "We support the use of Chinese yuan in payments between Russia and countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America," and further expressed confidence that such "forms of payments will be developed between Russian partners and their colleagues in third countries." Further:
"National currencies are more and more actively used" in the bilateral trade and two thirds of the trade turnover between Russia and China are already "made in rubles and yuan," Putin noted.
"This practice should be encouraged further" and mutual presence of financial and banking institutions on Russian and Chinese markets should be expanded, he added.
Additionally, Russia is not alone. The Iraqi central bank announced Wednesday that, for the first time, it plans to allow trade from China to be settled directly in yuan instead of the US dollar to improve access to foreign currency.
At the very moment that Xi and Putin wrapped up their meeting and transitioned to their televised joint press conference, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg made a significant allegation, picking up on prior assertions from Washington.
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/japans-leader-makes-surprise-visit-ukraine-moment-xi-putin-summit
