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The five BRICS countries have reached a broad consensus on their $100 billion development bank though some differences remain, the Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Li Baodong said on Monday ahead of a summit in Brazil next week to be attended by President Xi Jinping.
The new bank will symbolize the growing influence of emerging economies in the global financial architecture long dominated by the United States and Europe through the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.Leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa are expected to sign a treaty to launch the bank officially when they meet at a BRICS summit in the northern Brazilian city of Fortaleza on July 15.
A senior Brazilian government official said in May the five BRICS nations were likely to agree to fund the bank equally, giving them the same rights, Reuters reports.
The new development bank would help cover growing demand for project financing that has not been entirely met by global multilaterals, which, for years, have been heavily criticized for meddling in the domestic policies of sovereign borrowers.
The BRICS also need to decide if the bank will be based in New Delhi, Shanghai, Johannesburg or Moscow. Brazil will not offer headquarters because of upcoming presidential elections that could delay negotiations, the Brazilian official said.
Argentina has been invited to join the sixth BRICS Summit, due to take place in July in the Brazilian city of Fortaleza. The country will join the bloc of major emerging economies, made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, which jointly account for as much as nearly quarter of the world's economy.
Russia voiced the news following the recent meeting held between the country’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Argentine counterpart Héctor Timerman, which resulted in signing a joint declaration on the non-proliferation of arms in outer space.
Argentina’s Timerman stressed the "strategic association" between both countries "is based on a common vision about the essence of international relations, values and objectives of common well-being that both nations are building."
The officials have discussed both the global and regional policies, "assuming that international conflicts have a sustainable solution" if political leaders work toward "the strengthening of a solid multilateral system based in cooperation and mutual collaboration and the non-intervention in states' domestic affairs through economic, political or military means."
Timerman, notably, "stressed Argentina’s position against double-standard" messages, referring to Western powers denouncing the referendum recently held in Crimea while the same parties supported the 2012 voting in the Malvinas Islands as their inhabitants reaffirmed their decision to stay British.Sergei Lavrov said Russian leader Vladimir Putin will likely meet with President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and other Latin American heads of state during Putin’s upcoming visit to the region.
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