According to the diplomat, companies from El Salvador are interested in cooperation with Russian firms, and the government of the country seeks to strengthen trade and economic relations with Russia:
"Inside El Salvador, any tourist can pay with bitcoins for any services. But bitcoin is not widespread in our country, so we are looking for other ways to strengthen trade. We are having difficulties with calculations because the official currency in El Salvador is the US dollar. As an alternative, El Salvador suggests using cryptocurrency in trading operations."
Ilyukhin stressed that in the current situation, the best solution would be to create a bank in El Salvador that conducts settlements in a variety of world currencies: from the yuan to the Russian ruble.
However, El Salvador is currently conducting transactions through US and EU banking institutions, and it may be difficult to make payments in other currencies due to possible sanctions from Europe and the United States, the diplomat noted.
Earlier, the US State Department recognized the importance of bitcoin's role as a legal tender for the formation of a positive investment climate and the revival of the tourism industry in El Salvador.