A statement released by Pakistan says Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif met with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi on Friday at Congress Hall in Ufa, where they are attending the summit of BRICS trade group and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.
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Previous year South Africa’s total trade with Brics was R382bn, which had grown from R268bn in 2011, Zuma said in a speech prepared for delivery during the plenary session at the 7th Brics summit in Ufa, Russia.
The central banks of the BRICS countries have signed an operating agreement on a $100 billion foreign exchange reserve pool that is being set up by the grouping’s five member nations to help each other “in case of any problems with dollar liquidity”.
The high-level representatives from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa announced that they would encourage reforms in the United Nations and the worldwide Monetary Fund (IMF).
Zhu Jiejin, an expert on BRICS studies at Fudan University in Shanghai, said the bank shows that the level of cooperation among the group’s members has been raised from a mainly strategic approach to a more pragmatic one.
Terming Modi-Xi talks as “constructive and inclusive”, she said China has maintained good communication with India and other parties on the Lakhvi issue.
Thereafter the two leaders came together in Kathmandu in November 2014 for the SAARC Summit but did not have a bilateral meeting because of acrimony between the two countries at that time.
Global economic recovery remains slow.
“The world economy is still not stable”, Modi said. However, the emphasis is on economic cooperation.
“India will be pleased to contribute to the development of infrastructure in the region”, he said.The prime minister noted that India has been “actively participating in SCO activities that are open to observers”.
“I hope the member countries will be able to take benefit of financing arrangements and BRICS arrangement for export credit insurance and innovation”, he said.
Sameer Patil, a security expert at Mumbai-based think-tank Gateway House, said the proposed meeting between the National Security Advisers was an important development.
The newly adopted strategy will convert ideas for cooperation into concrete measures, said Xu.
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