March 24, 2025 (EIRNS)—The March 20 Board meeting of the BRICS New Development Bank (NDB) approved the extension of former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff’s term as head of the bank for five years more. “I was reelected. The council nominated me and the board unanimously approved it,” Rousseff told Brazilian daily O Globo on March 23. Rousseff, a former head of state, brings to the job an understanding that long-term productive credits are needed for nations to build the infrastructure and projects required to industrialize and lift people out of poverty. First named to chair the bank by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in 2023, it was Russian President Vladimir Putin who proposed that Dilma Rousseff’s chairmanship of the NDB be extended, during the October 2024 BRICS Summit in Kazan, Russia.
Rousseff gave an interview to O Globo on the sidelines of the opening day of the China Development Forum on Sunday, where she was one of the prominent speakers who followed Prime Minister Li Qiang.
Rousseff made two important points to O Globo. First is that she expects the BRICS summit in Brazil in July to focus on mutually-beneficial investment projects. “I believe they [BRICS members] will closely focus on investments as well as investment platforms,” she said, although adding the cautionary note that “there may be another [focus] between now and then, I can’t guarantee that.” She was responding to a question about U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat to slap 100% import tariffs on the BRICS countries if they decide to establish an alternative currency to the dollar. Rousseff retorted: “Is he going to tax the European Union? The euro is an alternative currency,” but then explained that she doesn’t think the BRICS is going to do that.
