PANAJI /Goa, India/, May 5. /TASS/. The work to increase the use of national currencies in settlements between the member countries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) cannot be stopped, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated on Friday.

"There is an understanding to increase the use of national currencies in settlements among SCO members. The approaches being developed inside the Eurasian Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank and, and the BRICS New Development Bank can be applied to this. Everything was discussed and it's all very relevant," he remarked.

"The relevant departments, ministries of finance, and central banks are now reviewing all this This process is already underway, and it cannot be stopped," Lavrov stated.

At the same time, Lavrov recalled Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's suggestion for the BRICS to convert to their own currencies. "In terms of the BRICS New Development Bank, we paid attention to the President of Brazil's repeated initiative to switch to their own currencies with the prospect, which is not ruled out, of creating some kind of aggregated currency," Lavrov added.

"The most important thing now is to consider practical issues that will allow the cooperation of independent states to be protected from actions of the West that abuse its position in the global economy as a whole, including actions of the United States to abuse the dollar's position as a reserve currency. However, the euro also shows such approaches," he said.