BAKU, Azerbaijan, Jan.28
Trend:
Iran and Eurasian Economic Union are moving toward eliminating the USD from financial transactions, while Iran's financial telecommunications system, known as SEPAM is expected to be an alternative for SWIFT, said Director of Multilateral Financial and Trade Cooperation Department in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
"This move should start by eliminating USD from financial transactions. In addition to existing questions about eliminating USD, we are expecting our partners in the Eurasian Economic Union to implement necessary actions," said Aziz Mansouri, Trend reports citing Mehr News Agency.
"The national SWIFTs are being established in many countries since the US is using SWIFT as a tool, now Russian and Chinese SWIFTs are active and in this regard, SEPAM has established in Iran as an alternative for SWIFT," he said.
He went on to say that Russia has established FBSS, and BRICS could be an alternative to SWIFT between Russia and other partner countries, the Chinese SWIFT is another suitable option for a banking transaction.
"Total of 12 Chinese banks have been identified that could have a transaction with Iran even during sanction situation, and they do not concern over sanction and might not even have American shareholders," Mansouri noted.
"The Eurasian Development Bank with five members of Eurasian Economic Union could finance construction projects that do not have international resources. The released reports show 15 percent of Eurasian Economic Union export revenues are in Russian ruble and 60 percent is in USD," he added.
Mansouri also pointed out that the traditional banking system in the country is not providing development needs therefore monetary agreements should be formed between Iran and members of the Eurasian Economic Union especially with Russia.
"It is expected that Iran and Eurasian Economic Union preferential trade agreement would eventually turn into a free trade agreement, while the trade volume could increase ten times more but monetary and banking requirement should be provided," he stated.
"Gold is another instrument for trade since Russia is one of the biggest countries with large gold reserves in the world and could trade commodity with gold. Iran's economic relationship with Russia has continued during the worst situations and transactions could even increase," Mansouri said.