I was stunned that the United States had accidentally given China a big gift, and it was a generous gift that China had been waiting for for a long time.
What is this gift? That is, Sino-Russian trade has almost been de-dollarized, and the volume of RMB trading has become absolutely dominant. And the yuan has become the most important, if not the only, foreign exchange reserve of Russia.
This means that the renminbi has taken another huge step towards the international market and becoming the mainstream international currency. And if this step is taken in the normal way, it will take less than 10 years, or even 20 years. But now it's been two years. And all this is thanks to the United States. So at this point, let's see if we really need to thank the United States.
Recently, the Russian Foreign Minister publicly stated that in the context of the comprehensive development of Sino-Russian economic and trade cooperation, more than 90% of the mutual settlement between the two countries is carried out in their own currencies, and the two sides have almost completely achieved de-dollarization in trade settlement.
Moreover, the Central Bank of Russia also said that in the two years since the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian war, the yuan has replaced the US dollar as the most traded foreign currency in Russia. Especially after a large number of Russian assets have been frozen, the renminbi has become the only and best choice for Russia's foreign exchange reserves.
Therefore, it is obvious from the statements of the Russian Foreign Minister and the Central Bank of Russia that Russia has almost given up the dollar and firmly chose the yuan. This is really a great gift from heaven for our country. This estimate is an objective fact that the United States and other Western countries are unwilling to see and accept.
The sudden outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian war and the massive sanctions imposed on Russia by Western Europe can be said to have completely pushed Russia to China. It has completely made a very big help for the Chinese people's currency to go to the world, become the world's mainstream currency, and even become the mainstream reserve currency.
In the past, if there were no large sanctions against Russia initiated by the United States and other Western European countries due to the outbreak of the black swan of the Russia-Ukraine war, it would be difficult for the RMB to go global, increase trading volume, and exert greater international influence, and it would take at least 10 or even 20 years.
But now, it's only been two years. Moreover, according to public statistics, the bilateral trade volume between China and Russia in 2023 has reached a record 240.11 billion US dollars, an increase of 26.3% year-on-year, of which the bilateral local currency settlement volume has reached an astonishing 95%.
Therefore, on the one hand, the trade volume between China and Russia has continued to expand, hitting a record high, and on the other hand, the local currency settlement of bilateral trade between China and Russia has also reached 95%, which is really a historic moment.
Ten years ago, in 2013, the amount of bilateral trade between China and Russia was 2% to 3% in local currency. So it's really not easy to achieve this result in ten years. This directly makes the renminbi officially surpass the yen to become the world's fourth largest international settlement currency since last year, the first is the US dollar, the second is the euro, and the third is the British pound.
Therefore, the United States has unknowingly given us a big gift, and it is a generous gift that we cannot ask for. I don't know if Lao Mei will regret breaking her thigh when she sees this result.