It is highly likely that the discussion about the role of the dollar as the world’s reserve currency will be taken up at this week's Group of Eight (G-8) summit in Italy, more so with France, Russia and India urging a debate on the same.

With China initially coming up with the idea of an alternative to the dollar as global reserve currency, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei seemingly reassured the US when said to reporters in Rome: “The U.S. dollar is still the most important and major reserve currency of the day, and we believe that that situation will continue for many years to come.”

Along with China’s continuing insistence on a debate on the dollar’s status at the G-8 meeting, French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde has also called for better foreign-exchange policy coordination, thereby suggesting that the role of the US dollar role as a reserve currency may be debated at the summit beginning in L'Aquila, Italy, on Wednesday.

Moreover, the Russian President, Dmitry Medvedev, has talked about regional reserve currencies. Medvedev noted that though the need for reserve currencies cannot be overlooked, still they “can't be introduced by presidential decree or by order of the central bank. It's about trusting countries' economies.” Medvedev also added that, for the present, there is no alternative to the dollar or the euro.