MOSCOW, August 25. /TASS/. Supranational bodies tend to promote their own top-down agenda instead of helping members develop according to their unique needs, and therefore BRICS is not currently planning to establish any such bodies, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told a news conference devoted to the results of the BRICS summit in South Africa.

When asked if the group should take the path toward institutionalization, Ryabkov said he "would be cautious" here. "BRICS is a network organization by definition, where every member is equal," he maintained, as he said Russia would not want a repetition of others’ mistakes in establishing supranational bodies at BRICS. "Countries find it harder to protect their interests under such pressure from an international bureaucracy," he explained.

Although the senior Russian diplomat did not rule out any decisions further down the road, he concluded by saying that "the time is not ripe yet for such steps."