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BRICS finance ministers failed to agree on creation of BRICS Development Bank

Siluanov said that the finance ministers could not agree on separate issues such as the amount of capital and the size of contributions

Anton Siluanov. Photo ITAR-TASS

Anton Siluanov. Photo ITAR-TASS

DURBAN, South Africa, March 26 (Itar-Tass) - The finance ministers of the BRICS countries have failed to agree on key issues related to the creation of the BRICS Development Bank, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov told journalists on Tuesday.

Siluanov said that the finance ministers could not agree on separate issues such as the amount of capital and the size of contributions to be made by each country.

"The sides also failed to reach a consensus on the principles of governance: whether it should be carried out on equal terms or be proportionate to the size of contributions made by each of the BRICS states,” Siluanov explained.

The minister said that a place for the bank’s future headquarters had not been chosen either. “I can only say that Russia doesn’t claim that the bank be necessarily located in its territory. We certainly understand that other countries could be more interested,” the Russian finance minister said. He believes it would be premature to talk about the headquarters’ location so long as the key issues remain unsolved.

“We agreed to work further. The decision will be made, if it is to be made, at the level of the heads of state,” Siluanov went on to say.

The most important thing, the minister said, is to decide where to find resources for the project. He explained that the initially proposed capital size was 10 billion dollars. “It’s going to be 2 billion dollars for each member if divided by five. It’s big money. It’s going to be hard for us to debate this issue in parliament. I think that all the other states will also have this problem,” Siluanov emphasized.

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