Russia and Morocco can minimize the impact of Western sanctions against Moscow on their commercial exchanges by resorting to barter and using currencies other than the dollar and the euro, said the Russian ambassador in Rabat, Valerian Shuvaev in an interview with the Spanish news agency “EFE”
EFE cited the Russian ambassador quoting "It is possible to discuss barter operations as well as find solutions for mutual settlements using other currencies, except for the dollar and the euro, or national currencies.”
Through the Russian ambassador, it seems that Moscow is seeking to maintain commercial relations with Morocco, especially since Moroccan-Russian relations have begun to notice significant improvement in recent years, especially after the visit of King Mohammed VI to Russia in 2016 and the signing of a number of agreements.
At that time, Morocco and Russia signed 16 agreements in many fields, especially the economic field, under the supervision of King Mohammed VI and President Vladimir Putin, and then a year later, the former Moroccan Prime Minister Saad Eddine El Othmani signed with his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev in the capital, Rabat, eleven agreements, three of which in the fields of energy, industry and agriculture.
After the signing of these agreements, the then Moroccan Prime Minister, Saad Eddine El Othmani, said that they came within the framework of complementing the 16 agreements signed in March of 2016 between Moroccan King Mohammed VI and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.
After these agreements, economic relations between Rabat and Moscow witnessed an increasing growth, especially in the trade exchange between the two countries. Data for the year 2020 show that Moroccan imports from Russia exceeded one billion dollars, making Russia one of only 9 countries, of which Morocco's imports exceed the ceiling of the billion.
On the other hand, Moroccan exports, in turn, are witnessing an upward growth, as they exceeded the $200 million threshold in 2020.
With regard to the past year, 2021, the initial indicators speak of the continuing pace of escalation of trade movement between Russia and Morocco, as the Russian Trade Representative in Morocco announced, in an interview with Sputnik, that exports from the Russian Federation to Morocco in the first half of 2021 increased At 20%, this is the best indicator among all African countries.
