BRICS, G20 linked in global affairs: Russian diplomat

The development of the Group of Twenty (G20) and of BRICS were closely linked, as both manifested the rise of a multi-polar global economy in the 21st Century, a senior Russian diplomat said Friday.

"BRICS countries have played a leading role in strengthening G20 as a tool to counter the global financial crisis," the Foreign Ministry's coordinator for G20 and BRICS affairs, Ambassador at Large Vadim Lukov, said in an article published on the ministry's website.

BRICS countries from the start saw G20 as a floor to push their reforms of the international financial-economic architecture. Thus, creation of the G20 agenda had been a result of compromise among developed countries and emerging markets, he said.

BRICS countries consistently pushed their common interests within G20, which shifted these five members of the cluster closer to each other, the diplomat said.

A coordinated approach by BRICS in G20 facilitated compromise, and increased the efficiency of G20 work and global economy management, Lukov said, adding Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa did not oppose the other G20 members.

"Russian presidency of the G20 aims at joining forces to speed up global economic growth and increase employment. Russia also actively works in favor of IMF reform. G20 must politically encourage that reform, to work out agreements of changing IMF quotas based on a new formula," Lukov said.

He said the G20 was currently the most adequate structure for global multi-polar economic management. BRICS stood for dialogue between the G20 with United Nations, which increased the G20's legitimacy in the eyes of international community, the diplomat said.

A G20 leaders summit will be held Sept. 5-6 in the Russian city of St. Petersburg.