Russian FM says BRICS group to consider common currency

MOSCOW

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Wednesday that Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa – BRICS countries – will discuss creating a common currency at the group's forthcoming summit this August in South Africa.

"Serious, self-respecting countries are well aware of what is at stake, see the incompetence of the 'masters' of the current international monetary and financial system, and want to create their own mechanisms to ensure sustainable development, which will be protected from outside dictates.

"It is in this direction that the initiatives that have been voiced recently ... about the need to think about creating our own currencies within the framework of BRICS," he told a news conference after a meeting with Angolan President Joao Lourenco in the capital Luanda.

The minister added that Russia and Angola have a "firm intention" to develop cooperation in all areas, despite "illegal" Western pressure.

Lavrov said the West uses "the same colonial methods with which it exploited developing continents," and continues using them "to plunder foreign countries and uses resources of global importance to its advantage."

"By its actions, the West has proved that all the values and mechanisms of globalization that it itself created and promoted, including the inviolability of property, fair competition, the presumption of innocence, can be trampled on at any moment, and can also betray its allies at any moment. This is proved by the practice of not so long ago events in Afghanistan, Iraq, and during the Arab Spring of 2011," he said.

At a separate meeting with Angolan counterpart Tete Antonio, Lavrov said Russia supports the idea of reformation of the UN Security Council to increase the representation of African, Asian, and Latin American countries.

He said he briefed his Angolan counterpart on the situation in Ukraine, and drew his attention to West's actions, which are "using Ukraine for years for waging a hybrid war against Russia."

"Ukraine was also used to carry out a frankly colonial policy towards the Russian-speaking population of Ukraine," he said.

Lavrov stressed that in order to stop this "anti-Russian course," and to prevent turning Ukraine into "a territory for creating threats for Russia," Moscow launched its "special military operation" last February.

For his part, Antonio said Angola supports the principle of non-interference and called on Russia and Ukraine to declare a cease-fire and start a dialogue.