Russia's and Egypt's leading commodity exchanges plan to cooperate more ‍closely, with ‍a view to setting up a potential ​new grain exchange within the wider BRICS group, the head ⁠of Russia's SPIMEX exchange said late on Thursday.

Russia, the world's ⁠largest wheat exporter, ‌has been pushing to establish the exchange as part of a broader plan to ⁠create new financial instruments, detach its trade from the U.S. dollar and help Moscow to combat Western sanctions.

"In general, all of this can be ⁠viewed both as bilateral Russia–Egypt ​relations and as the creation of a BRICS exchange," Igor Artemyev, head ‍of Russia's SPIMEX exchange, told reporters after the signing of ​a memorandum of understanding with Egypt's EMX.

Under the memorandum, the parties plan to simplify exchange-trading procedures and explore possibilities for mutual exchange access for brokers and companies of both countries.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that BRICS countries, which are among the world's largest producers of grains, legumes and oilseeds, could establish such an exchange, potentially expanding ⁠it to trade other major ‌commodities.

The plan to create the exchange was approved by leaders of BRICS countries, which include Brazil, ‌Russia, India, ⁠China, South Africa and Egypt, among others.

(Reporting by Olga Popova Writing ⁠by Vladimir Soldatkin Editing by David Goodman)