China and Russia sought greater international clout at a summit yesterday, with China promising US$10 billion in loans to Central Asian countries and Russia challenging the US dollar’s dominance as a global reserve currency.
Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) said Beijing would 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 Moscow and Beijing use to counter Western influence in 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 US 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.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev sought to further raise his country’s leverage in geopolitical issues by separately meeting with Afghan and Pakistani leaders late on 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 also signaled its intention to offer stronger assistance to the US-led efforts in Afghanistan.
At the same time, Medvedev pushed against US 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,” he said. “We must strengthen the international financial system not only by making the dollar strong, but also by creating other reserve currencies.”
Medvedev said new currencies will take a long time to emerge, but emphasized that the world will feel the growing need to hedge financial risks.
“The main reserve currency, the dollar, has failed to serve its purpose,” he said.
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