By Emre Gurkan Abay

MOSCOW 

Turkey for the first time will import 30,000 tons of high-protein wheat from Russia using Russian rubles, the Russian-based SovEko analytical center said Tuesday.

Some 17,000 Russian rubles (around $260) per ton of wheat is expected to be paid.

Doing trade using national currencies is expected to reduce losses caused by currency conversion, said a statement by the center.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had earlier announced that Turkey would increase the use of national currencies in its trade with major trading partners such as Russia.

President Vladimir Putin, for his part, supported this, saying that the use of national currency in bilateral trade would minimize the negative impact of external factors.

At a Sept. 17 meeting between the two leaders, Putin said that Turkish-Russian relations are "developing positively," adding: "In terms of trade, they're growing intensely."

* Jeyhun Aliyev contributed to this story from Ankara