By Frank Jack Daniel and Brian Winter
NEW DELHI, March 28 (Reuters) – The BRICS group of emerging
world powerhouses – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South
Africa – is set to outline plans at a summit this week for a
joint development bank, while the five countries’ stock
exchanges will also move closer together.
Officials say details of the initiatives still need to be
agreed, but they herald a new level of ambition for a bloc that
brings together about half the world’s people but which has been
criticised as an empty acronym.
The Middle East, including oil imports from Iran, will also
be discussed at Thursday’s meeting in India, officials say.
Security was tightened in the capital on Wednesday before
the arrival of BRICS leaders including China’s Hu Jintao.
His visit drew protests from Tibetan activists, one of whom
died earlier in the day after he set himself ablaze. Police
arrested about a dozen Tibetans before the summit.
BRICS leaders held their first summit in 2009 and have
sought to increase their global influence to reflect their
growing economic clout. But with radically different economies
and systems of government, and competing priorities, the
countries from four different continents have often struggled to
find common cause.
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