The BRICS developing-nation assembly of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa will continue expanding, while the upcoming summit in Brazil is expected to become historic, says Georgy Toloraya, executive director of the Russian National Committee on BRICS Research.
The BRICS summit, being held in Fortaleza and capital Brasilia from July 15 to 16, was especially important as some momentous decisions were to be discussed there, including plans to establish a new development bank and a pool of BRICS currency reserves, Toloraya told a Moscow-New Delhi video conference on Monday.
“It is important for BRICS to have an investment tool which could finance various investment projects of these countries,” the expert said. “It is expected that a portion of funds will be spent to develop Russia’s GLONASS project.”
“It becomes clear today that BRICS is more of a political project but it has turned into a geopolitical phenomenon,” Toloraya said. “The fact that a bank is being created indicates the association’s institutionalization. BRICS is becoming stronger as a center of an alternative force and decisions aimed to change the world.”
“There are many contradictions,” he said. “BRICS is not the European Union. But we should not only think about national interests but also solve common tasks.”
“The BRICS assembly will expand further,” the expert said. Possible candidates were Argentina and Indonesia, he said, adding that seven countries would be enough.
“In order to expand, we need to institutionalize ourselves, and to create a technical secretariat and a system of dialogue partners and observers,” he said.
Sergei Luzyanin, deputy director of the Institute of Far Eastern Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences, said the BRICS assembly was playing an increasingly prominent role in Russia as Western countries were trying to organize an economic blockade.
“BRICS today is aimed at modernization and renewal of the international financial architecture,” Luzyanin said. “Establishing a development bank is the beginning of the process.”
Vladimir Davydov, director of the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute of Latin America, added that the BRICS agenda would include issues of international security.
“Another serious challenge is the media field,” he said. “We should strengthen cooperation in cyber security and humanitarian ties."