On the eve of assuming the presidency of the expanded BRICS on Jan. 1, 2024, Russian officials are promoting a discussion of the BRICS nations functioning outside the dollar system. Even Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, who is no anti-monetarist firebrand, raised the matter in a statement made at the Russia-China Financial Dialogue forum in Beijing on Dec. 18, where Siluanov met with his Chinese counterpart, Finance Minister Lan Fo’an.
RT reported on the story under the headline “Russia Calls on BRICS To Ditch Dollar.” They quote Siluanov saying: “We need to further develop financial cooperation within the BRICS countries. Here we see opportunities ... to develop a payments system that would be independent of the infrastructure, which does not always fully fulfill the goals of individual countries.” He added: “Therefore, the sustainable development of financial relations and settlements on the BRICS platform is important for us, and we believe that it is necessary to work out such issues, and today we will consider a number of them.”
