Russia says dollar's days numbered as global trade currency

Russia's foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said on Tuesday that new U.S. sanctions against Ankara and Moscow were an illegitimate policy and a way for the United States to obtain an unfair competitive advantage in global trade.

Lavrov was speaking at a joint press conference with his Turkish counterpart Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu in Ankara.

The U.S. dollar's role as a global currency is in decline and Russia has been exploring for some time using national currencies to settle bilateral trade deals with Turkey and other countries, Lavrov said.

"I'm confident that the grave abuse of the role of the U.S. dollar as a global reserve currency will result over time in the weakening and demise of its role," said Lavrov, who was speaking at a news conference with his Turkish counterpart.

"The use of national currencies for mutual trade has for several years been one of the tasks that the presidents of Russia and Turkey had set," said Lavrov.

"Identical processes have been happening in our relations with Iran. Not only with Turkey and Iran, we're also arranging and already implementing payments in national currencies with the People's Republic of China," Lavrov said.

On Monday, the Kremlin said that Russia favoured bilateral trade with all countries in their national currencies, rather than the dollar, but that the idea needed detailed work before being implemented.

Lavrov said Moscow was surprised at the West's position on Syrian refugees and the conditions were there for them to start returning home.