Dilma and Putin debate investments in the Global South

This Tuesday (22), events began marking the 16th BRICS Summit in Kazan, Russia, which runs until October 24.

Among Russian President Vladimir Putin’s bilateral meetings, he was with the president of the New Development Bank (NDB), the BRICS bank, Dilma Rousseff.

The NDB, created in 2014 by the group’s founding countries, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, has the mission of investing in infrastructure and sustainable development projects in the Global South.

read more: BRICS, basis of a multipolar world order

With the expansion of the group, which meets for the first time with new effective members under the name Brics +, including Egypt, Ethiopia, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, Dilma addressed issues relating to this growth, with a view to bringing together even more countries emerging.

Information from international agencies states that the leader of the NDB said that she expects “a greater expansion of the Brics countries”.

In turn, Putin highlighted the importance of increasing negotiations between the group’s countries with their local currencies as a way of increasing independence from the dollar, to reduce geopolitical risks and “free economic development”, said the Russian president.

read more: BRICS meeting reinforces multilateralism against escalating wars

This is one of the Brics’ priorities, creating an alternative payment system to the World Financial Telecommunications Society (Swift), used by banks to exchange international transfers. The topic is of interest to everyone in the search to overcome the use of the dollar, for better agreements and for the appreciation of their own currencies, but it is especially important for Russia since its banks were excluded by the West from Swift in 2022, due to the war with Ukraine.

The group also debates the creation of a ‘BRICS currency’, as President Lula has already defended.

In his speech, the Russian president also highlighted that the NDB has already financed more than 100 projects with an investment of more than US$33 billion since 2018.

Phone call to Lula

Lula would travel to Russia to be present in person at the event. However, after suffering a domestic accident, the president’s medical team opted for him to remain in Brazil. With this, he will participate online.

But before attending the Summit leaders’ meeting via videoconference, Lula received a call from Putin, this Tuesday (22).

The Brazilian delegation in Kazan is led by Chancellor Mauro Vieira. The discussions that follow on the group’s initial agenda take place around the presence of BRICS partner countries and the official entry of Saudi Arabia as a full member. The country has already approved the entry, but has not endorsed it.