Brics summit may focus on greater use of national currencies for trade

The July 6-7 Brics summit in Brazil will take up trade settlement in national currencies, denounce terror and address issues like AI, climate finance and disease control

The annual BRICS Summit, to be held in Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro on 6 and 7 July, could deliberate on the issue of carrying out trade settlements in national currencies, a senior Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) official said here on Monday.

 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend the BRICS Summit in the Brazilian city as part of his five-nation tour from 2 to 9 July. The other countries the Prime Minister is visiting are Ghana, Trinidad and Tobago, Argentina and Namibia. India will be the grouping's chair for the next year.

 

On the proposed discussions on settling trade in national currencies, Dammu Ravi, Secretary (Economic Relations) in the MEA, told a media briefing: “Countries in the Global South are also looking at alternatives. It is not a de-dollarisation issue. Countries are also doing trade settlements in national currencies. This has been going on for quite some time.”

 

 

Ravi said BRICS is bringing some understanding of how important it is to have alternative mechanisms to do trade and projects in national currencies. “It is a process and we are confident that it will get traction in days to come,” he said.

 

Ravi said the BRICS leaders’ declaration is set to forcefully denounce the Pahalgam terror attack and call for a firm approach to unitedly confront terrorism in line with India’s expectations. “There is also a broader understanding on how to deal with this menace of terrorism and no one should be spared in dealing with it. I think that is very well captured. When you get the declaration, you will see the language is much to our satisfaction,” Ravi added.

 

The BRICS declaration is also expected to feature a reference to the Iran-Israel conflict. Ravi said four concrete “deliverables” are expected from the BRICS Summit, which include global governance and artificial intelligence, a framework declaration on climate finance, and a partnership for the elimination of socially determined diseases.

 

Asked about Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin deciding to skip the summit, Ravi said it will be a key forum for India to continue to push for the interests of the Global South.

 

Apart from the PM, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will also visit Brazil as part of her six-day official visit to Spain and Portugal from 30 June to 5 July. The Finance Minister will attend the fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FFD4), organised by the United Nations, and deliver a statement on behalf of India, according to a statement by the finance ministry.

 

Sitharaman will meet senior ministers from Germany, Peru and New Zealand, and the President of the European Investment Bank, on the sidelines of the conference. She will also participate in and deliver a keynote address at the International Business Forum Leadership Summit on “From FFD4 Outcome to Implementation: Unlocking the Potential of Private Capital for Sustainable Development”, in Seville, Spain.

 

Sitharaman will address the 10th Annual Meeting of the New Development Bank (NDB) as India’s Governor and also attend the BRICS Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting (FMCBG) in Rio de Janeiro. She will deliver an address during the NDB Flagship Governors Seminar on “Building a Premier Multilateral Development Bank for the Global South” and hold bilateral meetings with her counterparts from Brazil, China, Indonesia and Russia on the sidelines.

 

As part of her visit to Lisbon, Portugal, the Finance Minister is expected to have a bilateral meeting with the Minister of Finance, Portugal. She will also interact with prominent investors and members of the Indian diaspora.

 

 

BRICS, originally comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, expanded in 2024 to include Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates, with Indonesia joining in 2025. BRICS now brings together 11 major emerging economies of the world, representing around 49.5 per cent of the global population, around 40 per cent of global GDP, and around 26 per cent of global trade.    PM’s Argentina visit key to critical minerals, shale energy partnership 

The Prime Minister’s visit to Argentina will be important for India’s efforts to import critical minerals. Officials said Argentina is a part of the Lithium Triangle, which comprises Argentina, Chile and Bolivia. “We are talking to all three of them,” the official said, adding that India is also in talks with Peru and Bolivia to try and acquire mining concessions that hold lithium, molybdenum, and other critical minerals useful for India’s green transition and advanced manufacturing.

 

Argentina also holds the world’s second-largest shale gas reserves and the fourth-largest shale oil reserves, along with substantial conventional oil and gas deposits, making it a potentially important energy partner for India in the future, officials said.

 

The Prime Minister’s visits to Namibia and Ghana and his interactions at the BRICS Summit could also focus on finding ways to establish bilateral mechanisms for partnering with multiple countries to harness critical minerals — both in terms of extraction processes and securing access to such minerals globally, officials said. They added that India has made good progress in this respect in Argentina, and Africa is rich in such resources. New Delhi will need to be much more focused in tapping this resource base in Africa. The Prime Minister’s visits to both Ghana and Namibia become very important in this context, officials said.

 

At the Prime Minister’s meeting with Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Brasília, the two leaders are expected to discuss ways to strengthen and diversify bilateral trade, including through the expansion of the India–MERCOSUR PTA, as Brazil will hold the chairship of MERCOSUR from 1 July 2025.