HANOI, June 19. /TASS/. Russia and Vietnam are scaling up payments in national currencies and their share was 40% in 2023, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in his article for the Nhan Dan newspaper.

"Such transactions accounted for more than 40% of bilateral trade last year, and in the first quarter of this year their share rose to almost 60%," the Russian leader said.

"This is in keeping with the global trend towards phasing out the use of widely discredited currencies in international trade and investment," Putin added.