Photo: Alexander Joe/ AFP/ Getty Images
Leaders of the five BRICS nations plan to create a development bank in a direct challenge to the World Bank that they accuse of Western bias.
The bank would use $50 billion of seed capital shared equally between Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa but would undoubtedly be dominated by China. It would be the first institution of the informal forum started in 2009 amid the economic meltdown to chart a new and more equitable world economic order.
At a summit meeting on Wednesday in Durban, South Africa, Russian President Vladimir Putin gave support for the bank but cautioned it “must work on market principles.”
India’s trade minister said BRICS will “have a defining influence on the global order of this century.”
The five countries represent a fifth of global GDP and share high growth and geopolitical importance in their separate regions, but have struggled to find common ground that would convert their economic weight into joint political clout.
The two biggest economies of the group, China and Brazil, marked their determination to make changes in the world’s trade and financial architecture by signing a three-year currency swap agreement covering up to $30 billion a year in bilateral trade.
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