The transition to trade in national currencies between Russia and China will contribute to a global de-dollarization process, China’s Charge d’Affaires in Russia said this week at a conference on Russian-Chinese relations.

“The existing economic partnership between China and Russia and the long-term accumulated level of trade have laid a solid foundation for further deepening cooperation between our countries,” Sun Weidong said, noting that bilateral trade has risen dramatically, mostly on energy and agriculture supplies.

“Energy cooperation continues to play an important role in relations between the two countries, in addition, agricultural products and seafood from Russia are increasingly entering the Chinese market,” the diplomat said. “We have cooperation on major projects in the field of nuclear energy, aircraft construction, rocket engines, satellite navigation… In addition, payments are constantly being made in local currencies.”

Russia and its trading partners have been expanding the share of national currencies in mutual settlements in an attempt to move away from the US dollar and the euro. In recent years, Moscow has been steadily following a policy of de-dollarization of foreign trade, particularly expanding the use of Chinese currency for buying financial products denominated in yuan, and using it as a reserve currency.

Trade between the two nations hit $136 billion in the first nine months of this year, jumping by over 30% in annual terms, according to the National Bureau of Statistics of China. Moscow and Beijing aim to increase bilateral trade to a $200 billion target this year.

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