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BRICS, originally comprising Brazil, Russia, India, and China, has expanded to include South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia. Top BRICS finance and central bank officials are meeting in Moscow this week. read more
 "Russia urges BRICS to create global financial alternative to Western-controlled IMF")
Representational Image- File
Russia as the current chair of the BRICS group has urged the member countries to form an alternative to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in a bid to counterbalance the political influence exerted by Western nations ahead of the upcoming BRICS summit this month.
The BRICS alliance was founded in 2006 by Brazil, Russia, India and China, with South Africa joining in 2010. It has recently undergone an expansion and now includes Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates. Saudi Arabia has said it’s considering joining, and Azerbaijan and Malaysia have formally applied.
Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, who is hosting the meeting, said the global financial system is controlled by Western countries and that the group, which represents 37% of the global economy, needs to create an alternative.
”The IMF and the World Bank are not performing their roles. They are not working in the interests of BRICS countries,” Siluanov said at an event on the first day of the meeting.
”It is necessary to form new conditions or even new institutions, similar to the Bretton Woods institutions, but within the framework of our community, within the framework of BRICS,” Siluanov added.
The BRICS aims to amplify the voice of major emerging economies to counterbalance the Western-led global order. Its founding members have called for a fairer world order and the reform of international institutions like the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
Russia had its forex reserves in dollars and euros frozen and its financial system heavily hit by sanctions by the West after it invaded Ukraine in February 2022. The country is cut off from international capital markets.
Russia has recently also experienced delays in international transactions with its trading partners, including BRICS member countries, as banks in these countries fear punitive actions from Western regulators.
Russia’s central bank Governor, Elvira Nabiullina, has previously talked about a BRICS Bridge payments system, which would link member countries’ financial systems, but progress has been slow.
The only financial institution the BRICS countries have established so far is the New Development Bank, created in 2015 to finance infrastructure and sustainable development projects in BRICS members and other emerging economies.
With inputs from agencies.
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English (US) ·