SOCIAL POST: Egypt signs a strategic agreement with China to dedollarise trade and adopt Yuan settlement
Egypt is following Iran’s playbook.
Months before the failed US–Israel airstrike campaign on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, Tehran moved first. It locked in agreements with Russia and China to settle trade in national currencies, linked to CIPS, and systematically removed the dollar. This was done preemptively. Egypt is now replicating the same moves after escalation.
On July 10, the Central Bank of Egypt hosted the Governor of the People’s Bank of China. Three memoranda of understanding were signed, embedding Chinese financial infrastructure inside Egypt’s monetary system. The two central banks expanded their local currency swap line to allow direct yuan–EGP trade. The agreement also prepares the ground for Egypt to issue Panda bonds in China’s capital markets. Separately, Suez Canal Bank, TEDA Investment, and CIPS agreed to enable RMB settlement inside the Suez Economic Zone. UnionPay will be integrated into Egypt’s payments system via the Egyptian Banks Company and Paymob.
This is structural engineering: Egypt now has the legal and technical capacity to trade with China, Russia, and Iran entirely outside the dollar system. SWIFT is no longer required. Moreover, Egypt is not alone. Syria has also announced it will dedollarise trade and use national currencies. The UAE is already functioning as a hub for non-dollar trade settlement. A bloc is emerging, not rhetorically but materially.
A financial network linking Egypt, Syria, Iran, Russia, and China is being built. The Middle East is the first region to dismantle dollar dominance at this speed and scale. The shift is institutional and irreversible.
The US is responding with pressure. Trump has imposed tariffs on Arab states expanding BRICS ties. He warned that losing the dollar’s global role would be like losing a world war. That is the level of strategic threat now perceived. The new system is not theoretical. Egypt has joined it. Iran designed it under siege. Others are following under pressure. The financial map is changing. Egypt is no longer watching. It is shaping.