OREANDA-NEWS. April 13, 2010. The leaders of Brazil, Russia, India and China will discuss broadening the array of world currencies used in international trade at their summit Friday as they seek to lessen their dependence on the dollar.

"Trade in national currencies will be on the agenda of BRIC leaders," Arkady Dvorkovich, President Dmitry Medvedev's top economic adviser, told reporters.

The leaders will also discuss using special drawing rights from the International Monetary Fund for trade, he said.

"We continue to think that this instrument has good potential, although our G8 partners have not agreed with this yet," Dvorkovich said, referring to SDRs. "Our BRIC partners, including China, support us more in this. It is possible we will discuss a common position."

Medvedev and his fellow BRIC leaders will meet in Brasilia on Friday for their second summit. At their first conference in Yekaterinburg in June, the leaders called for emerging economies to have a greater voice in international financial institutions and for a more diversified global monetary system.

Russia has regularly sought to promote regional currencies in trade and diversify its reserves, the world's third-largest stockpile, to reduce risks posed by the dollar's dominance. Medvedev last year questioned the dollar's future as a reserve currency and called for a mix of regional currencies to make the world economy more stable. He said a new supranational currency could reduce vulnerability to movements in the dollar.

China is also seeking greater use of its currency to reduce reliance on the dollar after Premier Wen Jiabao said last month that he was "worried" about holdings of dollar-denominated assets.

Plans to consider allowing the yuan to trade against the ruble will not increase the currency's volatility because the Central Bank would limit fluctuations, Dvorkovich said. "We do not see a danger here," he added.

Beijing has faced criticism, in particular from the United States, for keeping the yuan artificially low, but Dvorkovich said it was not their place to interfere.

"This is part of China's sovereign policy, and there couldn't be any international decision on this issue," he said.

The BRIC summit may help consolidate the four countries' positions on issues including reform and regulation of financial institutions and coordination of macroeconomic policies.

"We see that the role of BRIC is to guarantee timely solutions to these issues," Dvorkovich said.

Russia and Brazil will separately discuss cooperation in aerospace, energy, telecommunications and agriculture, he said.

Trade between the countries fell 32 percent last year to USD4.6 billion, according to the Economic Development Ministry.

Before going to Brazil, Medvedev will visit Argentina on Wednesday and Thursday to meet with his counterpart Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner and the country's business community, Dvorkovich said.

"The potential of Argentine companies is underused in Russia, and there are possibilities to expand investment and cooperation in trade," Dvorkovich said. "Unfortunately, apart from Argentine restaurants in Moscow, I don't know of anything else."

Russia could offer Argentina its expertise in hydroelectric energy, he said.


"A considerable part of Argentina's hydro energy system works on Russian equipment," Dvorkovich said.

Trade between Russia and Argentina fell to USD1.35 billion last year from almost USD 2 billion a year earlier, according to the Economic Development Ministry.