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Turkey wants to use national currencies in trade with Russia — economy minister

Turkey’s minister of economy says trade between the two countries will reach $26-27 bln in the near future

IZMIR, August 18. /TASS/. Turkey’s Minister of Economy Nihat Zeybekci said on Friday he thinks his country and Russia should use national currencies in their trade.

"We are looking at setting a task of using Turkish liras and Russian roubles in bilateral trade. If we don’t do it, our trade will be strongly influenced by exchange rate fluctuations," he said at a plenary session on the margins of the 86th international exhibition in Izmir. "We hope that before October 20, when the Russian-Turkish intergovernmental commission is to meet in Kazan, these issues will be settled and we will be able to set further tasks."

According to the Turkish minister, the two countries still have a number of outstanding problems that are to be resolved to regain former cooperation dynamics.

"Now we are very close to regaining the atmosphere that preceded October 2015. Yet, we have a number of matters to be settled. And we want to see the result as soon as possible. One ban entails another. Restrictions entail further restrictions," he said, obviously referring to Russia’s restrictions on imports of some types of farming products from Turkey.

"Trade between the two countries will reach 26-27 billion U.S. dollars in the near future and this figure will exceed the indices for 2014-2015," Zeybekci said.