Russia proposes 'direct payment' for Bangladesh power plant amid SWIFT ban

By BBC Monitoring

Russia has proposed to use a "direct payment system" to settle dues for Bangladesh's Rooppur nuclear power plant, The Daily Star newspaper reported on 16 March.

The proposal to settle payments for the power plant came under discussion at a three-day long virtual meeting between Russia and Bangladesh, which concluded on 15 March, the report said.

The payment from Bangladesh for the $13 billion power plant had been delayed amid Western countries' ban on some Russian banks from the global SWIFT payment system, which has effectively cut the nation off from the global payment network, the report stated.

According to the report, Bank of Russia has sent a a letter to Bangladesh Bank Governor Abdur Rouf Talukder, in which it said that the "existing Russian-Bangladeshi interbank infrastructure is not sufficiently robust to service all mutual foreign trade settlements".

"In view of this, we would be grateful if you could support and facilitate the establishment of direct correspondent relations between our countries' banks," the report quoted the letter as saying.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh Bank has said that it was "assessing the various modes" of payment as Russia has "a lot of sanctions on it".

Russia's state-owned nuclear energy organisation Rosatom, is currently building the power plant, which is expected to start operating in 2024.

See also: Briefing: Bangladesh media highlight Russian criticism of US over sanctioned ship

Source: The Daily Star website, Dhaka, in English 0812 gmt 17 Mar 23