During the meeting of the finance ministers and central bank governors of the BRICS countries—Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa—held virtually on April 8, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov pointed out that Western sanctions related to the Ukraine military operation are pushing the BRICS countries into closer economic cooperation at an accelerated pace, according to coverage in RT on April 9.
According to Siluanov, the “current crisis is man-made,” and the BRICS member states “have all the necessary tools to mitigate its consequences for their respective economies and the global economy on a broader scale.”
Siluanov said the current U.S. dollar-based international financial system should be reformed to ensure “independence and continuity of economic processes.”
“The situation in the global economy has deteriorated significantly as a result of the sanctions. Bans on settlements, disruption of production and supply chains, export controls and import bans – all of these restrictions hit the global economy.”
He also revealed that the BRICS are working together to update their financial interactions by creating a BRICS-based interbank message system, modeled on SWIFT, the global messaging system from which Russia was removed by the Western sanctions.
