Russia and China will continue to increase the share of settlements in national currencies, but a complete abandonment of the dollar is impossible, Russian Ambassador to China Andrei Denisov said on air of the Rossiya-24 TV channel (VGTRK).

“It is impossible to completely abandon the dollar in principle, and no one sets such a goal, because the dollar, in essence, is an instrument, it is a settlement currency, it is a means of international settlements and international payments. Another thing is that its use, as the practice of recent years or even months shows, involves certain and very impressive risks for us and for our Chinese partners, and not only for them,” he said.

Denisov continued: “At present, the share of national currencies in settlements on trade turnover between Russia and China is somewhere between 20% and 25%, and it is growing. Moreover, the increase in trade turnover is not accompanied by a decrease in the share. This indicates that its quantitative indicators are also increasing. Therefore, we will increase it. “Already now new contracts are concluded mostly in national currencies, but the old ones, where it is written that the currency of settlement is the US dollar, or for example, as for natural gas, the euro, they are still in force,” he said.

“But this trend will continue and will gradually gain momentum. But I repeat, no one sets the task to do it quickly, to their own detriment. This should all happen naturally, under the influence of quite specific market factors,” the Russian ambassador said.