Saudi Arabia intends to join the BRICS bank

Saudi Arabia has begun negotiations to join the New Development Bank (NDB) of BRICS. The country may receive the status of the ninth member of this financial institution, as reported by the 'Vedomosti' newspaper, citing the Financial Times, which received a statement from the organization.

The bank representatives stressed that great importance is attached to Saudi Arabia in the Middle East and a competent dialogue is underway with Riyadh.

Eight countries are currently members of the NDB. The authorized capital of the bank is 100 billion U.S. dollars. The main purpose of the financial organization is to allocate funds for infrastructure projects in the BRICS countries and developing countries. The NDB is headed by the former president of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff.

Speaking about the NDB BRICS, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Council of Foreign Ministers in early May that the five countries paid attention to the initiative, repeatedly expressed by Brazilian President Da Silva, to switch to their own currencies in the future. The creation of an aggregated currency is not ruled out, but all this is still under consideration by the relevant agencies, finance ministries and central banks.

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