Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov
Photo: REUTERS.
On Tuesday in Nizhny Novgorod, summing up the results of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the BRICS countries held there, the head of Russian diplomacy, Sergei Lavrov, answered the figurative question of a Chinese journalist: is it possible to “build a bridge of golden bricks”? ”between West and East.
For two days, behind closed doors, Council members racked their brains thinking about how to get out of the dollar quagmire. It has been said a lot lately and at various levels that the West has finally and irrevocably begun to openly use the US dollar as a weapon to pacify rebellious countries. But what to do about it, not with words but with actions?
Last fall, at the BRICS summit in Johannesburg, it became clear that its participants were able to determine a common vector in the de-dollarization of economies. The heads of state ordered their teams to work on creating a BRICS payments system independent of the West.
At the Nizhny Novgorod Council the debate on this idea was one of the main points on the agenda. After all, in the fall in Kazan, at the next summit of the association, the ministers will have to report on the concrete results of their work.
“A profound transformation is taking place before our eyes. Only by uniting ranks can we truly effectively promote the vision of a just future that we all share,” Lavrov said after a two-day brainstorming session in Nizhny Novgorod.
He recommended that journalists “pay due attention” to the text of the Council’s final declaration. He said: “The ministers emphasized the importance of increasing the use of national currencies in trade and financial transactions between the BRICS countries.” This means that negotiations on the creation of a new payment system are in full swing.
– The work went without problems. Everyone was guided by consensus. Even in the most complex issues,” our minister emphasized.
A Chinese journalist asked Lavrov if the BRICS could build a golden brick bridge between the West and the East. The fact is that the name of the BRICS association, translated into hieroglyphs, sounds exactly like that in Chinese: a large golden brick.
In response, our minister recalled how Russia and China together built a bridge over the Amur River: “We are our half and you are yours. But to start building, the same process must begin on the other side.”
– The West has built a wall between itself and the rest of the world. If he wants, let him tear it down, put supports under it and explain to us under what conditions he is willing to return to the civilized world. “We’ll see,” Lavrov said.
