“I invite all these countries that are here, Uruguay, Colombia, Mexico, to participate in the BRICS in Brazil,” Lula, who was attending the inauguration of the new Uruguayan leader, told the press.
I think that even if they are not physical members, it is important that these countries participate because it is time to have a debate with the whole world,” he stressed.
“It is important that at this Brics summit we really strengthen two fundamental things. Let’s strengthen multilateralism and let’s strengthen free trade. Because if there is no free trade, there is no multilateralism, there is no democracy,” he stressed.
He further said that “the Brics are not a small thing. They have almost half of humanity, they have almost half of the world’s GDP (gross domestic product), they have two very important countries, China and India, which represent almost half of humanity”.
At the end of December, President Yamandu Orsi met the president of the New Development Bank (NDB) of the Brics, Brazil’s Dilma Rousseff.
Speaking at a press conference afterwards, the former Brazilian president said that “it is very important that Uruguay’s accession to the NDB of the Brics is completed”.
She pointed out that Uruguay’s accession process was “almost complete” and that “only the approval of various institutional bodies” of the South American country, such as Parliament, was missing.
On this occasion, Orsi played down Uruguay’s likely integration into the NBD.
“Uruguay is very used to working with other historical mechanism” and “this is very new”, he said.
He pointed out that this proposal “has nothing to do with joining” the Brics and that “Uruguay is not in it and will not be in it”, although he believes that “everything must be explored” and “nothing should be wasted”.
Foreign Minister Mario Lubetkin has stressed that the Uruguayan government will seek to maintain good relations with the United States, whose administration does not look favourably on the emerging bloc of Brics member and associate countries.
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