Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s comment for the media following a meeting of BRICS leaders on the sidelines of the G20 summit Antalya, November 15, 2015
This meeting is always held on the sidelines of G20 summits because many issues on the G20 agenda require coordinated actions by the BRICS countries.
Today’s discussion revolved around global economic problems and the unstable international financial and monetary system. In this context, the leaders reaffirmed their commitment to mutual actions with due consideration for the interests of each other and to promoting joint projects. As you know, the new Development Bank has been established, and it has been agreed today that the concerned agencies of our five countries should launch operations through specific projects next year.
Second, it was emphasised that the BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement remains important, and that it will be used to reduce the negative impact of global market developments (that don’t depend on our countries) on the financial systems of BRICS countries.
Thus, we are attaching special significance to finalising the first stage of International Monetary Fund reform. It was noted with regret, including a statement circulated after a meeting of BRICS leaders, that a decision to implement this reform to increase the quotas of the BRICS countries at the IMF was being blocked by the failure of the United States to ratify it. A statement approved by BRICS leaders today directly advocates this ratification because the IMF’s reputation and legitimacy will suffer otherwise.
I would also like to single out some political assessments contained in this statement. They deal with such negative developments as the politicisation of economic ties and the use of unilateral economic sanctions to get around international law. It was noted that these actions negatively impact the international economic and financial system and must therefore be stopped.
It appears these are the main results. In their statement and during the discussion, the BRICS countries also praised the first meeting of the BRICS anti-corruption working group early this month. This new item on the BRICS agenda was stipulated at the initiative of the Russian Federation. None of the statement’s sections deals with international politics, but all countries involved in the discussion agreed that the latest events, including the terrorist attacks in Paris, make it absolutely imperative for everyone to discard any pretexts, any excuses and preconditions and to focus on establishing a truly universal anti-terrorist front. As you know, President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly noted this.
Of course, they also discussed the situation in Syria, positively assessed yesterday’s Vienna ministerial meeting of the support group for a Syrian settlement. They expressed hope that agreements to launch the political process will be honoured. So, we need to establish a delegation that can represent the opposition and launch dialogue between the government and the opposition on January 1 (either in late 2015 or in early 2016) and to reach joint agreements in about 18 months. This is a tentative deadline for completing constitutional reform and holding elections.
Anti-terrorist operations were mentioned in the Syrian context because ISIS, Jabhat al-Nusra and other terrorist groups are our common enemies. The current efforts of the support group for a Syrian settlement (that held its meeting in Vienna) yesterday to specify a list of terrorist groups, apart from those already mentioned as such in a UN Security Council resolution, were supported. Jordan will coordinate work to augment these terrorist lists. We are satisfied with this decision t because we recently established the Russia-Jordan anti-terrorist centre in Amman, the capital of Jordan. We reminded participants about this. The Minister of Jordan, the US Secretary of State and all others agreed that this would become a very good venue for efforts to coordinate the list of terrorist organisations. BRICS leaders also supported this today.
