Leaders of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China & South Africa) group of large emerging countries have named Shanghai as the headquarters of their new development bank and nominated India to provide its first president.
Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff, accompanied by the leaders of Russia, India, China and South Africa, announced the plans at their sixth summit in Fortaleza after a last-minute debate between China and India over who should host the New Development Bank.
A statement from the group, titled the “Fortaleza Declaration”, also said a “regional centre” would be established in South Africa concurrently with the headquarters.
The declaration said Brazil would head the bank’s board of directors and Russia would lead the board of governors of the institution, which will have initial authorised capital of $100bn aimed at fighting financial crises and initial subscribed capital of $50bn.
Ms Rousseff told journalists later the establishment of the bank had turned the Brics into “a partnership based on institutions”.
Having won the right to host the head office, China is expected to be the last of the countries to receive the revolving presidency.
Russia used the meeting to call on the Brics group to jointly counter moves by the US to “harass” other countries as Moscow seeks to build stronger alliances in its stand-off with the west over Ukraine.
As the five leaders gathered in the Brazilian beachside city, president Vladimir Putin told the Itar-Tass news agency that Russia had been exposed to a “sanctions attack” by the US and its allies.
“Together we should think about a system of measures that would help prevent the harassment of countries that do not agree with some foreign policy decisions made by the US and their allies,” Mr Putin said.
The US has been putting pressure on the European Union, whose leaders meet in Brussels on Wednesday, to take a tougher stance over Ukraine and to approve new sanctions that will hit the Russian economy.
Under pressure from Congress, US officials have threatened unilateral action if the Europeans do not introduce new measures before their summer break. They made the case for sanctions at a meeting of EU ambassadors at the White House this week.
The state department also released a document on Monday which detailed what it claimed was continued Russian support for separatists in eastern Ukraine.
“We have no evidence that Russia’s support for the separatists has ceased,” the state department said. “In fact, we assess that Russia continues to provide them with heavy weapons, other military equipment and financing, and continues to allow militants to enter Ukraine freely.”
Mr Putin’s fellow Brics leaders released a neutral statement on Tuesday, expressing its “deep regret” about the conflict. “We call for a comprehensive dialogue, the de-escalation of the conflict and restraint from all the actors involved,” their declaration said.
Russia’s president said he would also propose regular consultations between the five countries’ foreign ministries to co-ordinate their positions on regional conflicts at the UN.
Such a strategy should be aimed at “counteracting individual states’ attempts to impose on the international community the policy of displacing unwanted regimes and promoting unilateral solutions to crisis situations”, Itar-Tass quoted Mr Putin as saying.
Since Russia’s annexation of Crimea in March, the US and the EU have slapped travel bans and asset freezes on several Russian officials and tycoons.
Brics trade ministers also met late on Monday night and renewed their commitment to the World Trade Organisation deal reached in Bali last December to implement measures to smooth customs procedures.
India also appeared to back down on Tuesday after threatening to work with South Africa to block the Bali deal , which faces a crucial implementation deadline on July 31. India had said they were unhappy with the progress of parallel WTO talks on food security agreed to in Bali. But trade secretary Rajeev Kher said in New Delhi that progress on food security was no longer a condition for signing off on the Bali deal’s implementation, according to Reuters.
“We are not saying there should be no deal. We are simply asking them to address our concerns,” Mr Kher said.
Brazil is particularly keen to solve the impasse after lobbying hard to have one of its most respected diplomats, Roberto Azevêdo, take over leadership of the WTO last year.
Brazil also needs to revive the multilateral trading system to make up for its own lack of bilateral trade agreements.
In bilateral meetings on Tuesday, Chinese president Xi Jinping invited India’s prime minister Narendra Modi to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Beijing in November.
In the 80-minute meeting, the two called for peaceful resolution of tensions on their disputed Himalayan border and Mr Xi called for them to take joint positions on global issues.
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