China will boost ties with Russia in military tech, energy and space, top envoy says
- Zhang Hanhui tells Russian news agency that energy has been ‘the most important, fruitful and extensive area of pragmatic cooperation’
- Ambassador says the countries ‘should strengthen coordination to solve the difficulties caused by sanctions in trade settlement and logistics’
Zhang said there were difficulties in bilateral trade with Russia but the two sides would enhance settlements in their national currencies to ensure stable trade that they hoped would reach US$200 billion by 2024.
“The US and Western sanctions against Russia are indeed causing some problems for Sino-Russia practical cooperation, and the two countries should strengthen communication and coordination to solve the difficulties caused by sanctions to both sides in trade settlement and logistics,” Zhang said, when asked if there were ways to bypass the sanctions on Russia.
“China will continue to support the further expansion of local currency settlements in bilateral trade, investment and credit, and give full play to the role of infrastructure organisations and financial institutions in both countries, including the Russian renminbi business clearing bank, to serve and ensure the steady development of bilateral trade,” Zhang was quoted as saying in the interview on Thursday.
His remarks came after Vladimir Dzhabarov, the first deputy chairman of the Russian upper house’s foreign affairs committee, last month suggested Russia was willing to use the yuan in its trade with China, raising speculation that Beijing may try to help Moscow get around sanctions through a dedollarised financial payment system.
In the interview, Zhang denied there was any plan to abandon the US dollar but said the two countries would “adopt practical and flexible forms of cooperation” in trade settlement according to “actual demands and realities”.
He said the Chinese and Russian central banks would discuss the use of their own national payment systems in the two countries.