During his recent visit to China, Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim proposed to China the establishment of an "Asian Monetary Fund".

Back at home, Anwar told parliamentarians that given the economic power of Asian countries such as China and Japan, there is no reason for Malaysia to remain dependent on the US dollar and that the central banks of China and Malaysia had begun discussions on trade settlement in each other's currency.

On April 1, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs announced that trade between India and Malaysia can be settled in Indian rupees, which, according to the Indian media, marks a decisive step toward de-dollarization while shielding Indian trade from the Russia-Ukraine conflict. The US dollar was once the most important foreign trade currency for Russia, but it has now been increasingly dropped by many countries. At a finance ministers' and central bank governors' meeting at the end of March, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations discussed the use of local currencies for trade settlement to reduce reliance on major foreign currencies. Reportedly, China and Brazil also plan to use their own currencies to settle bilateral trade, instead of using the US dollar as the intermediary currency.

Why are countries distancing themselves from the US dollar in trade settlement, and even considering the establishment of an Asian Monetary Fund? The reason is very simple. In recent years, especially since the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the United States has used the dollar as a weapon to impose sanctions on countries it dislikes, causing serious losses to them. The more countries depend on the US dollar, the less secure they feel.

As the world's leading reserve currency, the US has been using the dollar to transfer crises to countries any time it feels necessary. No wonder John Connally, US Treasury secretary under President Richard Nixon, once candidly observed: "The dollar is our currency, but it's your problem". Twitter chief Elon Musk too admitted that US policy was prompting countries to abandon the dollar.

The proposed Asian Monetary Fund is somewhat like the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, an international financial institution initiated by China that has broken the control of the international financial order controlled by the West and been warmly welcomed by all countries. Maybe the AIIB's success prompted Anwar to suggest the establishment of the Asian Monetary Fund.