‘If we do decide to set up a basket of currencies or a supranational currency at some point, I don’t think it would be a bad idea. However, it’s too early to speak of such projects yet. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization member states’ economies are very different just now; besides, a supranational currency is only useful when the countries are intensely involved in mutual investment and trade. We haven’t reached this cooperation level with all of the member states yet,’ Assistant to the Russian Federation President Arkadiy Dvorkovitch said at a briefing during the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Yekaterinburg.

‘We do have strong partnerships with some of the states, so the idea of currency collaboration is becoming increasingly popular, but this isn’t true of all the countries in the organization. That’s why it’s early times yet to jump into conclusions,’ RIA Novosti quoted Dvorkovitch as saying.