JOHANNESBURG, July 25. /TASS/. The Russia-US summit in Helsinki showed that Moscow is open for cooperation with the United States, Economic Development Minister Maxim Oreshkin told BRICS summit in Johannesburg on Wednesday.

"We are open for various types of cooperation. The latest summit with the US president shows that we are open for cooperation and joint work in the future," Oreshkin said. Russia is open for any formats of international cooperation with different countries, he noted.

"Russia’s trade with the countries at this platform exceeds $100 bln. We are expanding and we are open for cooperation and this refers not only to trade relations, but also to investments and finances," the minister said.

Ten years ago when BRICS was set up, its member-states lagged behind the G7 in terms of GDP and purchasing capacity, Oreshkin said. Now BRICS outstrips the G7 by 10% based on this indicator. However, these countries have many directions for expanding cooperation, namely in technology and investment, the minister noted.

BRICS is an acronym standing for an informal association of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Its goal is to develop a consistent, pragmatic and transparent dialogue and cooperation between the countries. The participants also agreed that BRICS activity should be on a non-bloc basis and not be aimed against the third countries. Russia was the association’s initiator.

One of BRICS key goals is developing a global financial system, which will be independent from the current institutions relying on the dollar. Among the steps in this direction was the creation of the BRICS New Development Bank (NDB) and the Contingent Reserve Arrangement.