New Delhi, Mar 13 (IANS): The Western countries are putting pressure on China to limit Russia's access to its yuan reserves, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said.

He recalled that part of Russia's gold and foreign exchange reserves is in yuan.

"We see the pressure exerted by Western countries on China in order to limit mutual trade with China. Of course, there is pressure to limit access to those reserves that we have in yuan," Siluanov said in an interview, RT reported.

The Minister added that he hopes to maintain cooperation with China through partnerships.

Siluanov said that the country does not abandon its obligations on the public debt and will pay in rubles until Western countries unfreeze their gold and foreign exchange reserves. According to him, about $300 billion of gold and foreign exchange reserves have been frozen because of the sanctions.

"This is about half of these reserves that we had. We have a total amount of reserves of about $640 billion, about $300 billion is now in a state in which we cannot use them," he said, RT reported.