Tehran, Iran, June 1
Trend:
Deputy Head of Iran-Russia Joint Chamber of Commerce Qadir Qiyafeh said Tehran and Moscow are using national currencies in their bilateral trade.
“Settlements in rubles and rials are underway between Iran and Russia,” Qiyafeh said on June 1 as cited by FARS news agency.
The two sides are also using euro for their business transactions, he added.
In the sector of energy, Iran and Russia have no other option but to use the dollar in their trades as the two are members of Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Qiyafeh said.
Saying that Iranian and Russian banks are cooperating with each other with no problem, he said, “There is currently no specific problem with respect to Iran-Russia banking transactions.”
Officials in both Iran and Russia have said they were speeding up work on reducing dependency on US payment systems and the dollar as a settling currency.
Russia has already introduced a new national payment system called Mir to cut reliance on Western systems such as Visa and MasterCard.