Dhaka had been unable to make the payment in US dollars
since Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. The US and European sanctions
barred Moscow from accessing the dollar-denominated international banking
system.
Moscow initially wanted Dhaka to make the payment in rubles
for the US$13 billion Rooppur plant, said a Rosatom official on the condition
of anonymity.
“Both countries agreed to make transactions through yuan,”
the official told BenarNews, adding the decision was made on Thursday.
“The ruble created some complications as it is not an
official currency for Bangladesh’s foreign payments.”
Mezbaul Haque, a spokesman for the nation’s central bank,
Bangladesh Bank, told BenarNews that the yuan is one of five official
currencies for foreign exchange. The others are the US dollar, the British
pound, the euro and the yen.
Uttam Kumar Karmaker, the head of the European affairs wing
of the Bangladeshi Finance Ministry’s economic relations division, told The
Washington Post that the transaction was yet to be completed because payment
details needed to be resolved.
Russia is constructing as well as financing 90% of the total
cost for the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant (RNPP) in Pabna, a district
in northwestern Bangladesh. In late 2017, the Russian state-run nuclear energy
firm Rosatom began building the plant, which is expected to be ready in
mid-2023.
Dhaka’s decision to make the loan repayment in yuan was a
positive one, a former lead economist at the World Bank’s Dhaka office said on
Monday.
“The decision is a timely one for both Dhaka and Moscow, as
over 90% of the work on the project has been completed,” Zahid Hussain told
BenarNews.
Observers had anticipated delays at the plant since February
2022 when the Russia-Ukraine conflict began, although Bangladesh Prime Minister
Sheikh Hasina said last year that Dhaka would not stop doing business
with Moscow.
Still, Bangladesh blocked a Russian ship from
entering a local port just before Christmas because of US sanctions on
the vessel linked to Moscow’s war in Ukraine. The ship was carrying cargo for
the Rooppur plant.
Then in January, Bangladesh banned the entry of nearly 70 US-sanctioned
Russian ships.
Russia was not happy, and a month later summoned
Bangladesh’s envoy to Moscow and said the ban did not bode well for
the cooperation between the two nations.
In its statement, the Russian Foreign Ministry spoke
obliquely of the help it is providing Bangladesh, saying that blocking its
ships may have a negative impact on the prospects for our cooperation in
various fields.
Hasina counts Russia as one of her strongest allies. The
ties between her Awami League party and the Russian state date to Bangladesh’s
war of independence in 1971, which the Soviet Union supported.
Immediately after she returned to power following the 2008
election, Hasina signed a treaty with Russia to build the Rooppur nuclear power
plant. The costliest infrastructure project ever undertaken in Bangladesh, it
has solidified ties between the two countries.
A Rosatom official told BenarNews in February that the
Russian firm planned to send some light equipment for the plant via air.
“Most of the heavy materials have already been sent to the
site,” said the official in Bangladesh, who asked not be named because he was
not allowed to talk to the media.
“If needed, the company would use such vessels which are out
of sanctions, in the future,” the official said to BenarNews.
