OREANDA-NEWS. The Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation and the Ministry of Finance and Treasury of Turkey signed an agreement on settlements and payments in national currencies. The agreement was signed by the heads of the agencies Anton Siluanov and Berat Albayrak.

The aim of this agreement is expanding and strengthening interbank cooperation, as well as providing regularity in payments between the entities.

According to the agreement, the parties will gradually transfer to the use of the national currencies – the rouble of the Russian Federation and the lira of the Republic of Turkey – when calculating between countries. In addition, the press service of Russian Ministry of Finance said that the purpose of the document is to create the infrastructure of the financial market and increase the attractiveness of national currencies for companies. “The signing of the agreement is an important step for the further expansion and development of mutually beneficial, providing equal rights trade and economic cooperation between Russia and Turkey,” the Russian agency’s statement says. It is also noted that the deal provides a further expansion of the infrastructure for accepting Mir payment system in Turkey and the connection of banks and companies to the Russian analogue of SWIFT.

Earlier, the President of Russia Vladimir Putin asked his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan to “react as soon as possible” to the proposal concerning draft intergovernmental agreement on payments in national currencies.

At the end of 2018, trade between Russia and Turkey grew by 16 % and reached 25.5 billion US dollars.