KAZAN, May 18. /TASS/. Russia is actively working with foreign partners to pair their national payment systems alternative to SWIFT. Head of the Department of Economic Cooperation at the Russian Foreign Ministry Dmitry Birichevsky said this at the 14th International Economic Forum "Russia - Islamic World: KazanForum" on Thursday.

"We are actively working on this. We need to provide interfacing between national payment systems, which are alternative to SWIFT, and extend these payment systems to our trade. We are giving priority attention to this issue, because we understand that abandoning the Western-centric financial system in favor of a multi-currency world is inevitable in foreseeable future," the diplomat said.

According to Birichevsky, many Islamic countries "are at the forefront of this trend."

"In this regard, we pay considerable attention to the interest of our partners and Russia's interest in cooperation in the format of Islamic banking," he concluded.