President Cyril Ramaphosa has urged Brics countries to deepen financial and economic co-operation, as the group of emerging nations meets in Russia to pursue its aim of reshaping the global order towards multipolarity.
During the opening plenary session of the Brics summit in Kazan on Wednesday, Ramaphosa also called for recalibration of trade rules to enable industrialisation, reform of the World Trade Organisation and intensified co-operation “among Brics members by launching common development programmes in the fields of exports, industrial co-operation and technology exchange”.
Following the Johannesburg summit in 2023, the Brics group has an expanded from its five members — SA, Russia, China, Brazil and India — to include Egypt, the United Arab Emirates. Ethiopia and Iran. Argentina applied and then withdrew after its presidential elections in 2023.
The expanded Brics covers 43% of the world’s population, 32% of the world’s land area, about 35% of global GDP and 20% of world exports.
“We must enhance beneficiation of mineral endowments of Brics countries closest to source. This is important for development and for the advancement of our decarbonisation goals,” Ramaphosa said.
“The unique role of the New Development Bank as a multinational development bank is pivotal to the development aspirations of our group and emerging markets and developing economies at large…. It is one of the finest examples of the value of the Brics group in supporting the growth and development of countries of the Global South.”
At the opening plenary, other Brics leaders echoed similar views to Ramaphosa: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi endorsed steps for financial integration of Brics countries while Chinese President Xi Jinping also called for deepening of relations between the countries.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said more than 30 countries had expressed interest in joining the bloc, signalling growing interest by the Global South in Brics.
On Wednesday, leaders adopted the Kazan Declaration, which addressed a range of issues including reform of the global financial architecture, strengthening multilateralism and the expansion of the New Development Bank to include new members.
“We support the further expansion of NDB membership and expedited consideration of applications of Brics countries in line with the NDB general strategy and related policies,” the declaration reads.
“We support the NDB in continuously expanding local currency financing and strengthening innovation in investment and financing tools. We encourage the bank to follow member-led and demand-driven principles, the employment of innovative financing mechanisms to mobilise financing from diversified sources, and in this regard, we acknowledge the initiative to create a new investment platform to leverage the existing institutional infrastructure of the NDB, to boost the investment flow into the countries of Brics and the Global South mechanisms.”
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