President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Ms Rousseff,
I am happy to see you.
Last year we met on the sidelines of the Russia-Africa Summit. I am glad to have a chance to continue our dialogue. I must note that over this year the bank has managed to do a lot under your leadership. It has shown a significant net profit for the first time; in fact, it is becoming sustainable and operating more smoothly and successfully.
I hope today we will have a chance to talk about the bank’s further development and our cooperation with the bank, as well as discuss what can be done together, including on such large platforms as the St Petersburg International Economic Forum. Moreover, the topic is very acute: Developing multipolarity and strengthening its economic base.
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Of course, your opinion as the bank’s chair and as former president of Brazil, political figure, and head of a big financial institution, would be very important in all the discussions held on the site of the International Economic Forum.
Please give my best regards to the current President of Brazil, Mr Lula da Silva. We agreed to have a telephone conversation in a few days, to discuss bilateral ties. We also look forward to seeing him at the BRICS summit in Kazan this autumn.
I am very glad to see you. Welcome.
Dilma Rousseff, President of the BRICS New Development Bank (retranslated): Mr President Vladimir Putin,
I am very honoured to once again be here, in St Peterburg. I thank you with all my heart for having me here.
I believe that this is a very important moment that Russia is presiding at BRICS and organising his forum. The relations between the bank and the BRICS member countries are very important. Russia and Brazil are co-founders of this bank, so Russia plays a very important role for developing countries.
Today I had the honour to take part in this very important forum about the new emerging multipolar world. I believe that today the world increasingly needs to become more multipolar, as the Global North has not been able to solve the global problems of humanity.
The NDB [New Development Bank] has specific goals: to fill this gap and provide the necessary investments; and Russia certainly plays a very important role in this. We are a different bank from the rest. We are a bank created by the countries of the Global South for the countries of the Global South, and we have some very important characteristics; we cannot impose conditions on our members.
I believe that we are a bank that plays an essential role in what is the theme of today’s forum: multipolarity is impossible without the multipolar economy. Of course, the multipolar world is also reflected in national currencies, which is another obligation of the bank: to attract and carry out settlements in national currencies.
This is very important for developing countries that do not have their own strong currencies and suffer greatly from exchange rate volatility. Therefore, it is very important for us to be together today and discuss such an important topic as the NDB’s presence and involvement in the life of the BRICS member countries, Russia being one of them.
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