OREANDA-NEWS. February 4, 2009. Belarus and Russia will start working on an agreement to make the Russian ruble the reserve regional currency. This decision was taken at the session of the Supreme State Council that was held in Moscow on February 3, Belarus Foreign Minister Sergei Martynov told reporters commenting on the results of the session.

“We agreed to start developing an agreement to use the Russian ruble as the reserve regional currency and the accompanying measures,” Sergei Martynov said. Commenting on the speculations about the plan to allegedly make the Russian ruble the single currency of the Union State, Sergei Martynov underlined that it is the incorrect interpretation given by not very attentive reporters of some Russian media. The session of the Supreme State Council decided to develop by April 1 an agreement to make the Russian ruble the regional reserve currency. Regional reserve currency and Union State single currency are absolutely different things, Sergei Martynov explained.

According to him, the transition to the Russian ruble as the regional reserve currency in not only in the interests of Belarus and Russia, it will be beneficial for other states of the region, even more so in the crisis period. This convertible currency could be used in mutual payments, first and foremost, the minister added.

Sergei Martynov said that it is no secret that US dollars and Euro account for a great part of the Belarus-Russia trade. “It is absolutely obvious that in the given circumstances it hurts the interests of Belarus and Russia because the both sides pay for the currency conversion and for the passing of these currencies through the international payment system,” the Belarusian Foreign Minister said.

The participants of the Supreme State Council session commissioned the finance ministries and the national banks of the two countries with a task to take systematic efforts to make sure that the use of the Russian ruble as the reserve regional currency is practical and makes sense,” the minister added.