Saudi Arabia shocked everyone when it moved to abandon the petrodollar. What has happened recently shows that Saudi Arabia is changing its approach towards the US.

Recently, Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud announced that he will not attend the 50th G7 summit, scheduled to be held in Brindisi (Italy) on June 13-15. This was reported by Saudi Arabia's state news agency SPA, about a serious change in relations between Riyadh and the West.

It should be noted that on June 9, 2024, the 50-year security agreement between Saudi Arabia and the United States, signed on June 8, 1974, expired, one of the rules of which was the sale of oil and other Other goods are exclusively paid for in US dollars.

As a first step, Riyadh announced its participation in the mBridge international project, using the digital currency platform of several central banks used by commercial banks and some global institutions.

The system is built on distributed ledger technology to enable instant settlement of cross-border payments and foreign exchange transactions. The project has more than 26 observers including: Bank of Israel/Namibia/France, Central Bank of Bahrain/Egypt/Jordan. Besides, there are other "big guys" and some other financial institutions. of which the South African Reserve Bank was allowed to become a permanent member this month".

The mBridge project is the result of an extensive collaboration that started in 2021 between the Innovation Center of the Bank for International Settlements, the Bank of Thailand, the UAE Central Bank, the People's Bank Digital Currency Institute China and Hong Kong Bank. The first transaction was carried out in 2022.

According to Bizcommunity