The leaders of the BRICS countries – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – gathered in Johannesburg on Tuesday for a summit that began with an agenda that even the economist who came up with the name of the informal group scoffed at, Reuters and Agerpres reported.

Sergey Lavrov arrived in South Africa for the BRICS summitPhoto: Brics/Handout/AFP

Leaders of major emerging economies are meeting in South Africa on August 22-24, with the group’s expansion plans high on the agenda as more than 40 nations have expressed interest in becoming BRICS members.

But the vice-president of the South African Republic, Paul Mashatile, announced at the last moment that the topic of ways to reduce dependence on dollars was also put on the agenda of the priority discussion. South Africa has previously denied it will be discussed at the summit.

Ahead of the summit, several diplomatic sources said so-called “de-dollarization” would be discussed behind closed doors, a move rejected by the president of South Africa, which is hosting this year.

But the idea was publicly supported by the president of Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

“Why can’t we trade with our currency? Who decided it was a dollar? We have to have a currency that turns countries into a slightly calmer situation, because today the country has to run after the dollar to export,” he said in April at the inauguration ceremony of Brazilian economist and former politician Dilma Rousseff at the New Development Bank. former “BRICS Bank “.

Lula added, among other things, that “it’s difficult because they are bad people,” but also that there should be no rush to give up dollars, citing China’s “patience” as an example.

The “ridiculous” idea of ​​a common BRICS currency

However, the idea of ​​a common currency for these states was derided by Baron Jim O’Neill, a former economist at the investment bank Goldman Sachs, who coined the term “BRICS” more than two decades ago.

O’Neill, who first coined the term BRICS in a research paper in 2001, said the idea, aimed at avoiding the use of the dollar in trade, was “just ridiculous”.

“Will they create a BRICS central bank? How will it work? It’s almost a shame,” he said in an interview with The Financial Times a week before the start of the summit.

This year’s summit drew attention after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin in March, while South Africa was required to detain the Kremlin leader if he set foot on its territory as a member of the institution.

After months of speculation, the Kremlin officially announced on July 19 that Putin would not attend this year’s BRICS summit, and that Russia would be represented by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov instead. But Putin will also intervene via video conference.

Sergey Lavrov has already reached the top: