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On October 8th, the Russian Ministry of Finance and the Turkish Ministry of Treasury and Finance signed an agreement on settlements and payments in national currency, the Russian side announced in a press-release.
As noted in the message, the document is aimed at “expanding and strengthening interbank cooperation, as well as ensuring uninterrupted payments between business entities from the two countries.”
On the Russian side, the agreement was signed by First Deputy Prime Minister – Minister of Finance Anton Siluanov, and on the Turkish side – Minister of Treasury and Finance Berat Albayrak.
Within the scope of the agreement, commercial institutions’ demand for two currencies will be raised and a proper finance structure will be established.
The main goal is said to be an increase and a gradual transition to the use of the ruble and lira in settlements between Russia and Turkey, the creation of an appropriate financial market infrastructure and an increase in the attractiveness of national currency for companies.
To increase the liquidity level, Russian and Turkish issuers will develop instruments for issuing debt securities in the markets of the two countries.
“The signing of the agreement is an important step for the further expansion and development of mutually beneficial and equitable trade and economic cooperation between Russia and Turkey,” the statement said.
The agreement will further enhance the use of Russia’s National Payment Card (MIR) and Financial messaging system of the Bank of Russia (SPFS) in Turkey. The SPFS is an alternative of the US-controlled “independent” SWIFT.
“The agreement between the Government of the Russian Federation and the Government of the Republic of Turkey also provides for further expansion of the infrastructure for accepting Russian Mir cards in Turkey and the connection of Turkish banks and companies to the Russian analogue of SWIFT – the Bank of Russia financial message transfer system (SPFS),” the statement said.
At the same time, the two countries intend to organize the interaction of national financial message transmission systems with the subsequent possibility of connecting other countries to these systems, the Russian Ministry of Finance explained.
The agreement also provides that the parties intend to support the further opening and expansion of the use of direct correspondent accounts opened between commercial banks of states for the development of cross-border settlements.
Trade between Russia and Turkey is also on the rise, in 2018 it grew by 16%, up to $25.5 billion, while mutual investments went up to $20 billion.
The stable economic relations between the two countries aren’t a recent occurrence. Since the 1990s, Turkish contractors are actively engaged with sophisticated and high-profile construction projects in Russia including those for the Sochi Olympics and the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Those implemented in recent years only amount to $70 billion in value.
Turkey-Russia leaders target the trade turnover reaching an ambitious $100 billion in a foreseeable future, second only to the current Russia-China trade exchanges totaling $107 billion.
In April 2019, Russia’s Direct Investment Fund and Turkey’s Sovereign Wealth Fund signed an agreement on a $1 billion investment platform to facilitate implementation of their joint projects.
“I believe,” commented President Putin that, “with such investment capital our business communities will be able to raise at least $5 billion for miscellaneous projects.”
The two countries are also a part of the Astana format focused on the resolution of the Syrian conflict and the negotiations appear to be making progress at every meeting, together with Iran.
Russia also recently finalized the delivery of the S-400 missile defense system to Turkey and there are reported plans for Turkey to purchase Russian fighter jets after being booted out of the F-35 joint strike fighter program by the US.
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erdogan is sitting on the fence ready to go either way – next month he’ll visit trump in washington dc and I s’pose the purchase of the f35s will be on the table. however if the morons fold on the issue it mostly means that their threats and sanctions are hollow and can be disregarded, if you’re like turkey – the eastern corner of nato. and if the morons persist that there won’t be any f35s for turkey, well hello russia here we come and lets see those su57s. pleasure doing business with you.
meanwhile this latest sign of russia/turkey cooperation mostly means that they are on the same page on northeast syria and that turkey is free to deal with the kurds and that syria will join the fray shortly to jointly take care of the kurdish issue along the borders. no way that assad or erdogan or iraq or iran will allow a band of 25 to 30 million kurds run amok in the borderland and if it is required they’ll massacre the duplicitous bastards to have a peaceful borderland to deal with. pity the western powers are so one sided where the kurds are concerned – they, just like the jews in israel, deserve no kindness or respect – in fact shoot or displace the lot of them once and for all.
” no way that assad or erdogan or iraq or iran will allow a band of 25 to 30 million kurds run amok in the borderland ”
I agree, the Kurds are as trustworthy as gipsys, colourful maybe, but completely self serving. Arguably Turkey has the same attributes.
Turkey ,of course, has a massive dissident ( moderate head choppers ) problem of her own. Whilst continuing to support rival gangs of dissidents in Idlib, Turkey is fully aware that these gangs will be expunged from that Syrian province.
Politically, Turkey cannot assimilate these armed gangs within Turkey as that would cause massive unrest, and to kill two birds with one stone the current plan seems to be the removal or death of Kurds from the border with Syria East of the Euphrates and to replace them with the armed gangs of Syrian ‘dissidents’.
I fail to see how Syria benefits from either the Kurds or the dissidents as you describe. What a shitty deal for Syria.
rest easy – it’s all in competent hands and the outcome, if no certainty, will restore syria to its former glory, turkey will be back behind its border and iran and iraq will do their thing in joining up against the squatters, most likely joined by turkey and the purpose is to close down israel – no 2 states solution there – and the competent hands is putins naturally. turkey will do what they have agreed to do – end the war in syria and settle various grievances in the region.
the unhinged morons will hang on in iraq, if they can, the war in afghanistan is over for their part, severely beaten by a rag-tag band of peasants,despite having spent something like a trillion bucks and nothing to show for it (except profits and dividends in lockheed, northrop-grumman etc). saudi may or may not still be ruled by the al sauds but basically the enmity between iran and saudi will be laid to rest. nothing to fight for if the end result is mayhem and destruction.
israelis hopefully a memory and the squatters removed to greener pastures across the atlantic, where they will be as hated as now in the middle east, but there is basically no other place for them anywhere.
Idlib is more important to the Syrian government and is a ‘doable’ campaign now.
The lands East of the Euphrates are also important for grain and oil, BUT as long as the US is squatting there ,it is effectively off limits.
A Turkish invasion will possibly induce the Kurds to reconcile with Damascus and their numbers added to the SAA would greatly increase the viability any future operation to evict Turkey from Syria.
But Turkey is assimilating the armed gangs for their fight with the Kurds. what do they do after the battles, just dump them in Syria ?. sorry mate, but I doubt that.
IF Erdogan gets away with it there will be a few hundred thousand Kurd refugees seeking to cross the Euphrates over the new SAA bridge and their vacated lands would make an ideal home for a few hundred thousand of Erdogans mercenary ‘ murder and extortion gangs’. They would control smuggling and be a pool of ‘deniable scum’ with which the genocide of Kurds within Turkey can continue,in my opinion.
Get ready to adopt a Kurd family, Al :)
He’s either moving away from the West & NATO or infiltrating the enemies systems & processes on behalf of them …. never trust a vampire offering to work in a bloodbank.
SWIFT and $ are mechanisms for neo-colonialism like the East India Company and every self-respecting nation should shun them.
On Thursday the Chinese commerce ministry said that the two sides aimed to increase the volume of trade between the two countries to US$200 billion a year following last year’s 24.5 per cent rise to a record level of US$108 billion (2018). – https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3013483/russia-and-china-sign-deals-worth-us20bn-xi-jinping-and
I do hope Putin puts the Syrians and the Syrian war in front of trade with Turkey.
I can see why this is a good move for Russia. But still, you can’t trust Erdogan.