KENYAN PRESIDENT TELLS AFRICAN LEADERS TO ABANDON THE US DOLLAR
When the US government and its European allies began the sanctions war against Russia, they believed that they would be able to destroy the economy of the Eurasian giant. After all, according to their own propaganda, Russia's economy was smaller than the economy of Spain. And the country itself was a “gas station masquerading as a country”.
Not in their wildest dream (or nightmare) did the US government and its allies imagine that Russia's economy will remain undamaged despite the supposedly “crippling” sanctions. They are still reeling in shock at how Russia was able to absorb blow after blow lobbed its way and adapt to the new situation with ease.
The seizure of Russia's foreign currency reserves— some it in the form of gold bars— held in the Bank of England has also boomeranged. A measure, used successfully against Venezuela and Gaddafi's Libya, had failed to affect the Russian economy in any significant way.
In fact, it has prompted several countries across the world to withdraw their gold reserves from the Bank of England to protect against any possible seizure in the future. While many of the countries repartriating their gold continue to maintain good relations with USA and its European allies, they are fully aware that NATO states can't be trusted not to suddenly impose sanctions over some perceived transgression.
After all, the United States has a history of sanctioning corporate entities linked to its close allies. Examples include: US sanctions on French and British companies for doing business with USSR in 1982 and a general sanction threat in 2018 against European countries wanting to do business with Iran.
From afar, countries in Asia, Latin America and Africa observed the resilience of the Russian economy with quiet admiration. These countries saw Russia switch to its own Ruble currency for the purposes of trading its agricultural and petroleum products internationally.
They also observed that Russia's ability to participate in international financial transactions was not hindered by US sanctions, which banned the Eurasian country from making use of US dollar-dominated global payments systems. They witnessed how Russia was able to force European nations, against their will, to pay for Russian natural gas with Rubles.
And these Global South countries came to the conclusion that it was indeed possible to safely reduce their dependence on the almighty US dollar for international trade. The President of Indonesia and Prime Minister of Malaysia have since encouraged Asian countries to start conducting international trade in local currencies. The incumbent President of Brazil has also voiced similar sentiments from Latin America.
In that spirit, India is in talks with Indonesia to ditch the dollar and conduct bilateral trade in their local currencies, the rupee and the rupiah.
That comes in the wake of an agreement between India and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which allows the former to abandon the dollar and pay in its own currency for petroleum purchased from the latter.
Despite being an outspoken critic of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Kenyan government have staunchly refused to accede to pressure from the USA and European nations to participate (symbolically) in the sanctions war against Russia. Efforts by the Ukrainian Ambassador in Kenya to organize a video conference between President Zelensky and the Kenyan Parliament have also came to zero. Kenyan Parliamentarians have always been of the opinion that their country should not take sides in the conflict.
In March 2023, Kenyan President William Ruto renegotiated his country's petroleum supply contract with Saudi Arabia. Going forward, Kenya would no longer have to source US dollars to purchase Saudi crude oil. The Saudis agreed to accept Kenyan Shillings, the currency produced by the Kenyan government, as payment for petroleum supplied.
Not done with his own efforts to de-dollarize Kenya's international trade, President Ruto used a recent meeting of African leaders to campaign for the continent to dump the US dollar in favour of trade in local currencies.
**Watch Video Sourced From Today News Africa Channel: **
THE END
Dear reader, if you like my work and feel like making a small donation, then kindly make for my Digital Tip Jar at Buy Me A Coffee