Author: Steven Sahiounie

Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu announces that Bucharest supports negotiations for Ukraine’s EU membership. Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu declared on Monday that Bucharest supported the idea of starting discussions on Ukraine’s EU admission in 2023. “Discussed with [Ukrainian] president [Volodymyr] Zelenskyy about Romania’s continuous efforts to support Ukraine. Romania stands with Ukraine till its victory & in the reconstruction. We support the start of the accession negotiations with the EU this year,” Ciolacu said in a post on X earlier in the week. Previously, in June 2022, the European Commission recommended granting Ukraine an EU candidate status. In May last year, France’s Europe…

“The Chinese side will take all necessary measures to protect marine ecology, safeguard food safety and public health,” Wang Wenbin said The decision by the Japanese authorities to discharge water from the Fukushima-1 emergency nuclear power plant into the sea is a mistake, and China will be forced to take all necessary retaliatory measures, the country’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said. “China strongly insists that Japan should rectify this wrong decision and abandon its plan to discharge radioactive water into the sea,” he told a regular briefing, “The Chinese side will take all necessary measures to protect marine ecology,…

The Egyptian Ministry of Petroleum announced on Tuesday “a new petroleum discovery in the concession area of Gesum and Tawila West in the Gulf of Suez.” The Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources in Egypt said in a statement, through its account on “Facebook”, (the activities of the company “Meta”, which includes the social networks “Facebook” and “Instagram”, banned in Russia, as extremist), that “the drilling of the well was through early production facilities, which were recently installed in the North Gesum North field and the well was successfully put on production at a rate of more than 2500,<> barrels…

South African Vice President Paul Mashatile revealed on Tuesday that the focus during the meeting of the members of the BRICS group will be mainly on discussing reducing the dependence of the bloc’s countries on the dollar. Moscow – Sputnik. Mashatelli said the world is paying attention to the BRICS bloc because it is at the forefront of global rhetoric aimed at reducing dependence on the dollar. According to the South African official, whose remarks were quoted by Bloomberg, the leaders of the BRICS will consider, in particular, increased payments and trade in national currencies. Source: Sputnik

On August 22, 2023, the 15th BRICS summit kicks off in Johannesburg, South Africa. This event will be the largest-ever gathering of leaders of non-Western nations. BRICS is a framework that unites the largest non-Western world economies – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. This year, 67 heads of state will attend the top-level event, while 40 countries including Kazakhstan and Cuba have expressed their desire to join the club. Among those who jumped at the opportunity to officially apply are Argentina, Turkiye, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Senegal, Algeria, Ethiopia, Iran, and Indonesia. Russian Foreign Minister…

At the end of 2022, Germany’s public debt reached 2.4 trillion euros ($2.6 trillion). German Finance Minister Christian Lindner pledged on Sunday to tackle the nation’s public debt after it rose to 66-67% of GDP, surpassing the EU’s debt-to-GDP reference value of 60%. “Our debt burden stands at 66-67% of GDP. It stood at 59% before the pandemic … But I promise that my goal is to bring us back to the pre-crisis level of 59-60% while I am still in office,” Lindner said. At the end of 2022, Germany’s public debt reached 2.4 trillion euros ($2.6 trillion) and the…

According to Anton Siluanov, thanks to such an alternative the cost of commodity deliveries can be denoted as well as benchmarks for some goods so as not to depend on the single currency MOSCOW, August 22. /TASS/. The BRICS countries are discussing the possibility of creating a common unit of account alternative to the dollar, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov told CGTN TV channel during the BRICS summit. “The main emphasis surrounding the development of trade relations is now on settlements in national currencies. We see the potential to discuss the creation of unified settlement systems. This can be a unit of…

Russia’s trade turnover with APEC economies and EAEU member states gained 10.2% and 14.3% in the first half of 2023 MOSCOW, August 22. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has stated growth of payments with friendly countries in rubles and national currencies. “More and more payments in our external trade are made in rubles and friendly currencies. For example, the ruble’s share in payments for Russian exports rose more than three-fold in 1.5 years – from 12% to 42%, while considering the currencies of friendly countries this share totals 70%,” he said at a meeting of the Council for strategic development…

“We expect development banks to receive clear instructions from management to more deeply deal with multilevel payments not only on the basis of their balance, but in multisided entities as well,” Sergey Storchak said MOSCOW, August 22. /TASS/. All the conditions exist today to begin talking about the creation of a BRICS rating agency, VEB.RF senior banker Sergey Storchak said on the sidelines of the BRICS summit being held in South Africa. “If our goal is to expand the use of national currencies, it is logical to create a BRICS rating agency that will issue ratings in local currencies,” he…

The head of state pointed out that in the second quarter the federal budget deficit decreased by almost eight times compared to the first quarter MOSCOW, August 22. /TASS/. The current budgetary situation in Russia is generally stable, by the end of this year the federal budget can have a surplus of about 2% of GDP, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting of the Council for Strategic Development and National Projects. “The current budgetary situation is generally stable and carries no risks for macroeconomic stability,” the head of state said. He pointed out that in the second quarter…