Reference News website, February 12 report: The German website "Berliner Zeitung" published on February 10 an article by Nicolas Butlin titled "Getting Rid of the Dollar: How a New Global Financial Architecture Is Being Built with the BRICS Payment System." Excerpts follow:

The rising BRICS countries are increasingly paying attention to financial and monetary issues. The launch of the BRICS payment system plan coincides in time with China's new initiatives aimed at making the Chinese yuan a global reserve currency. These developments in financial policy have driven discussions about the gradual reduction of global dependence on the US dollar.

BRICS originally referred to Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. These countries are committed to becoming economic and financial policy powers capable of countering Western industrialized countries.

Currently, other countries have also joined this cooperation mechanism, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Iran, and Ethiopia. The total population of the BRICS countries exceeds 40% of the world's total population, and their economic output is also increasing as a share of the global economy.

In this context, the BRICS countries have been advancing projects for many years aimed at reducing their trade dependence on the Western financial system.

In this process, the BRICS countries designed a payment system as a supplementary payment infrastructure for cross-border transactions. Its goal is to complete cross-border transactions in local currencies, reduce costs, and minimize the impact of external interventions such as sanctions. Currently, this project is not a direct alternative to the SWIFT international payment system.

Mikhail Nikitin, partner at 5D Consulting, said in an interview: "The BRICS payment system is currently just an idea and a set of pilot initiatives. We are facing a long evolutionary process, and we will not suddenly leave the existing 'dollar infrastructure'." He said that the significance of the BRICS payment system lies not in its symbolism but in its implementation: standards must be unified, lending rules must be coordinated, and the clearing mechanism must function effectively.

Nevertheless, the trend in the financial sector is evident. Although the share of the US dollar in global currency reserves remains around 57%, its dominant position is no longer as unshakable as it was in previous years.

Natalia Frumina, a financial expert at the Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, said: "The status of a reserve currency relies on its predictability, liquidity, and stable rules. The US dollar is gradually losing these characteristics."

Therefore, the reason why Washington policymakers pay attention to the BRICS payment system is not because of its current scale, but due to its signal effect in political and economic terms.

Nikitin expects the United States to take countermeasures, exerting political pressure on Moscow, Beijing, and New Delhi, setting up trade barriers, and trying every means to protect the existing 'dollar infrastructure.'

Overall, there are no signs of a rapid shift in power in the global monetary system.

However, even Western analysts now believe that the emergence of parallel financial architectures is irreversible.

The BRICS countries' push for de-dollarization continues to drive the transformation of the global financial order. (Translated by Wang Qing)

Original: toutiao.com/article/7605870094337507875/

Statement: This article represents the views of the author themselves.