BRIC Builders

From NEWSWEEK Russia

The first summit of leaders from the world's biggest emerging markets ended with demands for a greater voice in the global financial system and a more diversified monetary system. But the inaugural formal gathering of the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) nations had a symbolic weight far greater than its closing statements from the Russian city of Yekaterinburg last week. Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim spoke to Russian NEWSWEEK's Leonid Ragozin at the meeting about BRIC's goals, American unilateralism, Cuba,, and whether the U.S. dollar should remain the world's reserve currency. Excerpts:

BRIC is based on the idea that in the latter part of the century, these four countries will make up the largest chunk of the world economy. So why BRIC, the political organization—is it to rule the world?

[Laughs.] Not to rule the world. I believe it is to help the world to be ruled in a more democratic and diversified way. I think we've gone through many experiences in which groups of countries were a sort of aristocracy in the world politics. I don't think it would be at all useful to re-create anything like that. But if you have more countries playing a more influential role, it's more likely that we have a better world order.

Many people believe that BRIC is a way to reduce U.S. domination. Do you agree?

We are living in the world that's changing. Just one example—we have a very important group of a different kind, which is India, Brazil, and South Africa [IBSA]. These are three big developing countries, three big democracies, each on its continent. At the same time we have excellent relations with the U.S. But one has to concede that the vision that people had after the fall of the Berlin Wall that this will be a unipolar world with the U.S. somehow dictating—this is not taking place. The world is becoming more diversified and BRIC is a part of this diversification.

There's been a lot of talk about changing the world's reserve currency.

These things are being mentioned from time to time. I personally don't believe this is something that will happen immediately . . . Nobody is interested in weakening the dollar, for the simple fact that we have our reserves in dollars. But I think, gradually, we'll have the transition to more internationally based methods of payments.