BRICS finance ministers renew crisis coordination in Washington

After the invitation, South Africa became the fifth member and the forum adopted the name BRICS. Its entry gave Africa a direct place in the leaders’ meetings.

Ministers met in Sanya before the summit, opening a regular forum for trade policy and economic cooperation.

The Sanya summit formally welcomed South Africa in the leaders’ forum and stressed solidarity, development and broader dialogue with emerging and developing countries.

BRICS leaders asked for more representative international institutions, including the UN Security Council, and stronger developing-country voices in economic governance.

Health ministers proposed cooperation and technology transfer to improve access to affordable medicines and other public-health goods.

The ministers discussed trade cooperation and called for a more development-oriented multilateral trading system.

The New Delhi summit linked global stability and development, called for more representative governance and addressed trade, health and sustainable development.

The Delhi Declaration directed finance ministers to study the feasibility of a new development bank for infrastructure and sustainable development in BRICS and other developing countries.

The banks agreed on credit facilities in local currencies to facilitate transactions and reduce dependence on fully convertible currencies in intra-BRICS trade.

A second agreement between development and export banks aimed to support trade finance among member countries.