Bangladesh and Russia have agreed to replace the dollar and switch to yuan to pay off almost $12 billion Russian loan given to Dhaka for the construction of the Ruppur NPP, Business Standard reported on Monday quoting the Ministry of finance of Bangladesh.
According to the new agreement, signed last week, Bangladesh will carry out payment settlements with Russia in yuan through any Chinese bank, and the Russian beneficiaries will receive payments using the Chinese cross-border interbank system (CIPS), which is an alternative to SWIFT for payments in yuan, the newspaper said.
According to Business Standard, Bangladesh will pay the equivalent of $318,000 in Chinese currency to Russia, which is the current debt of Dhaka under the Russian loan. It arose earlier as a result of the suspension of settlements due to anti-Russian sanctions imposed by the United States.
Bangladesh's central bank opened a window for RMB transactions in September 2022, allowing local banks to open RMB accounts at their branches abroad to settle cross-border transactions in the Chinese currency. Bangladeshi exporters were also allowed to retain renminbi in their export quota for settlement in Chinese currency.
The construction of the Ruppur NPP in Bangladesh is being carried out with the participation of the Rosatom state corporation. 90% of the construction project is financed by a Russian loan with a maturity period of 28 years.
The construction of the Ruppur NPP began in 2021. The NPP is located on the eastern bank of the Padma River, 160 km from the capital of Bangladesh. The plant is being designed and built according to the Russian Generation 3+ design. The facility is being designed and built by Rosatom's engineering division. The power plant will consist of two power generating units with VVER-1200-type reactors, which have a 60-year lifecycle and may be extended for another 20 years. Construction of the first and second power units is currently underway.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: RIA Novosti archive/Sergey Venyavsky/Creative Commons 3.0
Based on materials from TASS