Russian Ambassador to Qatar Dmitry Dogadkin has announced that Moscow has officially proposed to Doha that the two nations switch to settling their trade obligations in national currencies, and that the two nations have already begun working together on the idea.

In a statement on Monday to news agency Sputnik, Dogadkin said, “Our cooperation in investments is expanding. We are successfully developing our partnership with the Russian Direct Investment Fund. A number of joint projects worth more than 160 billion rubles, or 7.2 billion Qatari riyals ($1.9 billion), are being worked on.”

He noted that trade between Moscow and Doha has grown steadily, coming in at $19.23 million for the first quarter of 2023.

He added that the two countries are hopeful cooperation in the area of shipping and logistics could prove a particularly promising area of cooperation, especially in implementing the International North-South Corridor.

Russia has seen a surge in trade with the nations of the Persian Gulf in spite of geopolitical concerns, as various nations are looking to expand their economic ties with the Kremlin, including in developing alternative payment methods which will bypass the US dollar in trade settlement, according to Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

Russia and its partners in international trade have intensified their efforts to develop alternative means of settling trade obligations since the imposition of economic sanctions on Moscow designed to exclude Russia from the Western financial system. The main focus has been on using national  currencies for trade settlement, however there have also been rumors that the reserve currency the  BRICS alliance is developing for use in trade between partners might one day end up replacing the dollar as the dominant reserve currency in the world.