Ditching Dollar: Russia, Ethiopia Making Progress on Switching to National Currencies, Envoy Says

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russia and Ethiopia are moving forward in switching settlements to national currencies, Russian Ambassador to Addis Ababa Evgeny Terekhin said.

"We are searching for solutions, including the use of national currencies in mutual settlements, and are looking for other options for making payments and settlements. Yes, of course, not always and not everything works out right away. But there is progress. And I'm sure that we all we will overcome this," the ambassador told the Rossiya 24 broadcaster.

The announcement comes just a day after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's official visit to Addis Ababa, where he held talks with the country's top leadership to discuss bilateral ties as well as regional and international agenda.

While meeting permanent representatives of the African Union member-states and the diplomatic corps in Ethiopia, the foreign minister pointed out that the United States could freeze financial assets of any "irritating" country.

"If the US and the European Union, at the US behest, decided to freeze Russian reserves, and now they are seriously starting the legal process to prepare the basis for confiscation of Russian funds, who knows, if they become irritated by somebody else tomorrow, or day after, they may do the same to them," Lavrov stated.

Lavrov added that the reliance on the greenback as an instrument supporting the world economy is "not very promising." This has already prompted many nations to switch to alternative currencies instead of the US dollar, he said.

Lavrov announced that Russia and Ethiopia had identified a number of promising areas of cooperation, such as energy, agriculture, telecoms, transport, among others.

"We considered promising areas for further cooperation between our business people, such as energy, transport infrastructure, telecommunications, information security, agriculture, and extraction of minerals," Russia's top diplomat elaborated.

The foreign minister then said that particular attention was paid to further cooperation in trade, economy and investment.

"We will work on further diversification of commodity turnover and on the development of modern logistical and financial chains that will ensure the uninterrupted work of our economic operators," Lavrov emphasized.

In addition, the two countries reaffirmed their commitment to implementing new military and technical projects.