Cash-strapped Pakistan hopes it can pay for future Russian crude oil deliveries in Chinese yuan, Pakistani Minister of Power, Khurram Dastgir Khan, told Bloomberg in an interview published on Wednesday.
Pakistan has so far ordered just one crude oil cargo from Russia, expected to arrive this month.
Pakistan expects to receive in May its first cargo loaded with discounted Russian crude after placing its first order for oil from Moscow under a new bilateral deal, Pakistan’s Petroleum Minister Musadik Malik told Reuters at the end of April.
The payment for the first cargo of Russian oil was made in U.S. dollars.
Pakistan is desperate to import energy at low costs after it was outspent on the market last year when oil and gas prices surged while its foreign exchange reserves dwindled. The country has a currency swap with China, which would make it easier to pay for crude than using the little U.S. dollar reserves it has.
“We hope that if this becomes a long-term arrangement, it’ll become a rupee and Chinese currency transaction,” the Pakistani minister Khan told Bloomberg, commenting on the imports of Russian crude oil (ZH: before he was arrested).
A yuan payment would benefit both China and Russia.
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The Pakistani government may be hours away from being overthrown by their people. We should all be closely watching the situation in Pakistan as it has similarities in our country. Rumors concerning the arrest of Donald Trump on insurrection charges are in the news but I doubt this is a plausible scenario. But we must not underestimate our tenuous future: there are many flashpoints at present that will lead to an economic collapse or war.
I have said in the past that an economic collapse will lead to a world war and that its converse is true. I believe that the probability of a civil war (with the aid of other countries) should not be discounted. I do not subscribe to the belief that the enemy of our enemy is our friend. People should consider it a wise path to implement operational security in their community.
David DeGerolamo
Hmmmm…
Seems familiar.
I wonder who’s been to the Embassy in Islamabad of late.
Nuland of her minions.. by chance?
Both are members of the SCO so it makes perfect sense that they would wish to take the avenue. The world is buying Russian oil through the Chinese, even our dear friends in Japan.