JOAHNNESBURG: The days of the US dollar’s dominance in trade between the BRICS countries are numbered, Russian President Vladimir Putin said while addressing the BRICS summit at Johannesburg via video link.
Putin said at the summit that members will discuss the transition of trade from the dollar to national currencies, and the BRICS New Development Bank will play a key role.
“The targeted, irreversible process of de-dollarization of our economic ties is gaining momentum,” he said.
Security has been beefed up in Johannesburg, where South African President Cyril Ramaphosa is hosting Chinese President Xi Jinping, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and about 50 other leaders.
Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, Prince Farhan bin Faisal, is leading the kingdom’s delegation to the summit, where the bloc of major emerging economies is seeking to assert its voice as a counterweight to the Western-led international order.
BRICS forms over 40 percent of the world’s entire population and it abbreviates the initials of the countries that form it with Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
Putin, who was unable to attend in person because of an International Criminal Court arrest warrant, addressed the summit via video. He said the bloc was on its way to fulfilling the aspirations of the majority of the world’s population.
“We work together on the principles of equality, partner support, and respect for each other’s interests, and this is the essence of the future strategic course of our association, a course that fulfils the aspirations of the main part of the world community, the so-called global majority,” he said.
Despite Putin’s rejection of the dollar, Brazilian President Lula da Silva said the BRICS common trading currency would be aimed solely at facilitating trade between developing countries. “We don’t want to be the opposite of the G7, the G20 or the US,” Lula said. “We just want to get organized.
Lula stated that he supports other countries as the alliance should expand and accept new members mentioning Indonesia as a potential new member.
The three-day summit will see calls for greater economic cooperation and cooperation in areas such as health, education and climate change – but with a growing view that the developing countries are not being served by Western-led institutions.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa held separate talks with Xi in Pretoria and said he was seeking “Chinese support for South Africa and Africa’s call for reform of global governance institutions, particularly the UN Security Council”.
