TASHKENT, July 29. /TASS/. African countries and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) states understand that any member of the international community can fall under Washington's sanctions, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters on Friday after the SCO Foreign Ministers Council meeting.

"Of course, the African countries and other SCO states are well aware that any member of the global community, if they act in any way that the Americans do not like or dislike, can fall under their sanctions. Already, I think, this idea is quite firmly fixed in everyone's mind," the top diplomat said.

Lavrov noted that during the meeting the parties agreed to make a proposal to the SCO leaders to take concrete actions on the transition to mutual settlements in national currencies. "I think everyone will be thinking about it now. Africa already has this experience. There are common currencies in some sub-regional structures, but they are all pegged to Western currencies by and large. But from next year, they will have a fully functioning continental free trade zone. Probably a logical step would be to somehow reinforce this free trade zone with currency arrangements. I think this process will definitely go ahead," he added.