Russia, China to actively use national payment systems in trade - Putin

MOSCOW. May 16 (Interfax) - Russia and China have agreed to actively use national payment systems in bilateral trade, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a press conference following Russian-Chinese negotiations.

"The timely coordinated steps towards conducting interstate settlements in national currencies have made a significant contribution to deepening trade and investment relations. The share of the ruble and the yuan in Russian-Chinese commercial operations exceeds 90% and continues to grow. So, we can say that bilateral trade and investment are well protected from the impact of third countries and negative trends on global currency markets," Putin said.

"We have agreed in this context that Russia and China will continue to enhance contacts between lending and banking institutions and will energetically use national payment systems to serve our economic operators," he said.