Sound The Trumpet : Russia, China seek greater international clout

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“Russia, China seek greater international clout”
by AP
June 16th, 2009

Russia pushes for new reserve currencies at international summits, China offers loans

YEKATERINBURG, Russia -- China and Russia sought greater international clout at a summit Tuesday, with China promising $10 billion in loans to Central Asian countries and Russia challenging the U.S. dollar's dominance as a global reserve currency.

Chinese leader Hu Jintao said China will offer the loans to several countries, including Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, to help them through the global financial crisis.

The move, announced at the meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, adds muscle to China's role in the group, which Russia and China use to counter Western influence in resource-rich, strategically placed Central Asia.

The leaders of Afghanistan, Iran, India and Pakistan were also at the table, underscoring Russia and China's reach for broader global influence. The Shanghai group members released a summit declaration saying that global "multi-polarity is irreversible," a reference to their opposition to perceived U.S. domination in international affairs.

Russia gave a prominent platform to newly re-elected Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a show of support for a leader facing major protests at home and questions from the West about the legitimacy of the vote count.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev sought to further raise his country's leverage in geopolitical issues by separately meeting with Afghan and Pakistani leaders late Monday to discuss the stabilization of Afghanistan.

Medvedev said Russia offered help in carrying out joint transport, energy and other economic projects in the region to help eradicate poverty and remove feeding grounds for terrorism.

Russia signaled its intention to offer stronger assistance to the U.S.-led efforts in Afghanistan. Russia will continue to cooperate with the U.S.-led coalition there and provide transit corridors for supplies, but no new initiatives were announced.

At the same time, Medvedev pushed against U.S. domination of financial markets by calling for new global reserve currencies to complement the dollar.

"No currency system can be successful if we have financial instruments denominated in just one currency," Medvedev said. "We must strengthen the international financial system not only by making the dollar strong, but also by creating other reserve currencies."

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