Leaders of BRICS countries today met at this sea resort of China to coordinate their stance on major economic and international issues and adopted a far-reaching declaration that, among other things, called for restructuring of international financial institutions to reflect changes in the world economy, thus increasing the voice and representation of emerging economies.

The cooperation among BRICS countries was neither directed against nor was at the expense of anyone, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said while addressing the plenary of the BRICS leaders.

“We should join hands in ensuring a peaceful and orderly transformation of the world order that reflects contemporary and emerging realities. This should be the case whether it is the reform of political and security governance structures in the United Nations or the international financial, monetary and trade system,” he said, articulating the common view of the BRICS leaders.

Recognising that the international financial crisis has exposed the inadequacies and deficiencies of the existing international monetary and financial system, the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) supported the reform and improvement of the international monetary system, with a broad-based international reserve currency system providing stability and certainty.

Apart from Manmohan Singh, the closed-door summit was attended by Chinese President Hu Jintao, Russian President Dilma Rousseff, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and South African President Jacob Zuma.

Later, at a joint press conference by summit leaders, Manmohan Singh announced that the designated banks of BRICS nations have signed a framework agreement on financial cooperation which envisaged grant of credit in local currencies and cooperation in capital markets and other financial services. Under the agreement, banks in each country would work out modalities so that projects and loans could be encouraged in other BRICS nations, if national laws permit them to do so.

Talking to reporters at the end of the summit, Manbir Singh, Secretary (Economic Relations) in the External Affairs Ministry, said the BRICS nations’ proposal to trade in their own currencies should not be misconstrued as a move against the US Dollar.

The five nations also signed an MoU on BRICS long-term business contacts to facilitate trade amongst them. The FICCI will be the focal point for this on the Indian side.

The Chinese leader also sought to dispel the impression that BRICS wanted to emerge as a grouping aimed at countering leading global economies. Increasing the say of emerging economies in the global economic governance would be rather conducive to world peace and international prosperity, he added.

The BRICS countries would carry out closer cooperation on food security.

They also supported development and use of renewable energy resources, recognising its importance as a means to address climate change.

Supporting the G-20 initiative, the BRICS leaders desired that the grouping should play a bigger role in global economic governance as the premier forum for international economic cooperation.

In an action plan, the five nations decided to hold a meeting of high representatives for security issues in the later half of 2011 in China, engage in joint research on economic and trade issues, encourage cooperation in sports and promote cooperation in scientific, technological and innovation cooperation in BRICS format.