Turkey could use ruble to carry out trade with Russia, Turkish TV channel A Haber reported on Monday, quoting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Ankara and Moscow can use the “dollar, euro, ruble, gold and yuan in trade,” Erdogan said in an hour-long telephone conversation with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, according to the TV channel.
Putin and Erdogan discussed the situation in Ukraine and the economic fallout of the sweeping sanctions imposed on Russia by the EU, the US and a number of other nations.
Erdogan reiterated the importance of maintaining contact with Moscow. Putin, in turn, said he would instruct the 30 ships carrying sunflower oil and wheat that are currently in the Sea of Azov, to sail to Turkey, A Haber says.
Russia is one of Turkey’s main trading partners. In December 2021, Turkey exported over half a billion dollars’ worth of goods to Russia, according to data from Trading Economics. Russia exported $16.4 billion worth of goods to Turkey in 2019, reports the Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC), with the biggest export commodities being refined petroleum, crude oil and wheat. In recent times, trade between the two countries has been growing by about 10% a year.
Last August, the Turkish trade ministry said Ankara was determined to bring the overall volume of commercial exchange between the countries up to $100 billion a year.
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