HONG KONG, October 8. /TASS/. The BRICS countries' efforts to create alternative currency channels are gradually weakening the dominance of the US dollar, Kashif Hasan Khan, head of the economics department at Cambodia's Paragon International University, wrote in a column for the South China Morning Post.
"For many emerging economies, the US is no longer their main trade and investment partner, yet its currency still underpins their transactions. This disconnect has imbued with fresh urgency the efforts of the BRICS grouping to explore alternative monetary channels," the expert wrote.
He believes that the desire of countries in the Global South to find an alternative to the dollar is driven by the US using its currency "as a foreign policy instrument," particularly through sanctions and control over the SWIFT system.
The author notes that BRICS countries are already experimenting with a range of mechanisms to reduce US dollar reliance: lending in national currencies through the New Development Bank, mutual trade in rubles, yuan, and rupees, and the development of alternatives to SWIFT.
At the same time, the expert stresses that the dethronement of the dollar in the near future is unlikely, as the US Treasury bond market remains the most liquid in the world, and the dollar is backed by "the protection of the rule of law in American markets."
"The more realistic scenario is a multipolar monetary order rather than the emergence of a replacement currency," the author writes.
Earlier, in an interview with a TASS correspondent, Wang Zibang, a senior researcher at the Chinese Taihe Institute, expressed the opinion that secondary sanctions imposed by Washington against China and India for the purchase of Russian energy resources could undermine the dollar's hegemony and strengthen BRICS. According to him, if the US is prepared to completely sever trade and economic ties with China, then "they should take into account that this includes the hegemony of the dollar." This could lead to accelerated internationalization of the yuan and closer economic and financial cooperation within the BRICS countries.