JOHANNESBURG /South Africa/, August 24. /TASS/. The BRICS member states are now focused on finding ways to make settlements independent of the United States and its allies, while a single unification currency is currently not being discussed. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters.

"No one is talking about a single currency now. Anyway, all attention is now focused on finding ways to ensure our mutual trade, mutual economic projects and investments in such a way so as not to depend on the system controlled by the United States and its Western allies," he said.

As Lavrov pointed out, the West has proven "its ability, its willingness to actively abuse its status as an issuer of reserve currencies to achieve political goals in violation of all the rules of the free market, international trade and the World Trade Organization."

The Russian Foreign Minister pointed to the BRICS reserve currency pool project. According to him, this is "a forerunner to the steps that [the BRICS countries] are planning to take - steps to facilitate the use of national currencies, but most importantly, to create an alternative payment system."

"How exactly this will look - [this task] was left for finance ministers and chairmen of central banks to deal with. They should form an appropriate working group and prepare recommendations for the heads of state for the next summit in Kazan," Lavrov said.