After meeting in Moscow on Oct. 11, the Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors of the BRICS countries issued a Joint Statement with their proposals to be forwarded to the heads of state and government who will meet at the Kazan summit on Oct. 22-24. It is a lowest-common-denominator “consensus” document, which focuses only on “reform” of the current financial architecture to “enhance the voice of the developing countries and their representation in the IMF… and other international economic and financial institutions,” with a view to “making it more responsive to the needs of all countries.” Reflecting their overall adaptation to the straitjacket imposed by the current bankrupt system, the document insists that, even though there is a “rising global debt trajectory” and “a high risk of debt distress,” domestic “interest rates cannot be set disregarding external factors in most of the countries"—i.e., because of the threat of financial warfare and capital flight orchestrated by the City of London/Wall Street system.
There was clearly no consensus on the handful of important topics which the Russian chairmanship of the BRICS this year has proposed for action—which simply means that these matters of substance have been kicked upstairs to the heads of state and government at the Kazan summit. At that summit, decisions and action may very well occur, on these topics as well as the more fundamental issues of organizing an entirely new international financial architecture, which were not even addressed by the Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors.
For example, on the proposed establishment of a “BRICS Cross-Border Payments Initiative” (BCBPI) to facilitate trade and settlements in local currencies, the Joint Statement emphasizes that the proposal is “voluntary and non-binding, and [we] look forward to further discussion.” Translation: no agreement.
