Pakistan has paid for its first government-to-government imports of Russian crude oil in yuan, Reuters reported on June 12. According to Reuters, this marks a major shift in Pakistan’s dollar-dominated policy of paying for imports and exports.
According to reports, according to the agreement reached between Pakistan and Russia in April this year, the batch of Russian crude oil arrived in Pakistan’s largest city Karachi on the 11th local time. Musadik Malik, Pakistan’s oil minister, told Reuters in an interview that the purchase of 100,000 tonnes of oil, of which 45,000 tonnes had arrived at the port of Karachi and the rest was on the way. He did not disclose commercial details such as pricing or discounts, but said “the payment was made in RMB”.
In early June, Pakistan passed a special order allowing barter trade of certain goods, including oil and gas, with Afghanistan, Iran and Russia, using a barter method for payment settlement to supplement the shortage of spot exchange. Analysts believe the South Asian country is exploring new ways to buy and sell commodities without using the US dollar for transactions, which could be a sign of the country’s shift from West to East.