PRETORIA, July 3. /TASS/. Leaders of the BRICS countries, namely Brazil, India, Russia, China and South Africa, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), as well as invited leaders of a number of other states will have a meeting on July 9 in Russia’s Ufa on the initiative of Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss geopolitical issues and security problems, South African Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Maite Nkoana-Mashabane said on Friday.

"We are not just about business at BRICS. Our leaders are not oblivious about peace and security developments globally. They will not miss an opportunity to look at them, including geopolitics from all other regions. We will listen to the countries which Russia chose to invite and we will be forming partnerships with those countries," she told TASS. "We work for peace, security and development."

The minister said the meeting was expected to be attended by the leaders of Russia, China, India, Brazil, South Africa, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, Mongolia, Belarus, Armenia, and Azerbaijan.

The BRICS summit is expected to launch the BRICS New Development Bank (NDB), with a headquarters in China’s Shanghai and an African regional centre in Johannesburg.

"The Bank will start looking for developmental projects," Nkoana-Mashabane said. "A question should be asked in South Africa and Africa: Do you have bankable projects to offer to the New Development Bank of BRICS? The answer is "yes". We've got bankable projects to be presented. The focus of the bank is on infrastructure development projects."

In June, South Africa’s parliament ratified an agreement on the establishment of the New Development Bank of BRICS and the Contingency Reserve Arrangement (CRA). The government has delegated two representatives to the Bank’s board. Banker Leslie Maasdorp has been endorsed as NDB Vice President, and former South African Reserve Bank governor Tito Mboweni — as a nonexecutive director. The NDB management is expected to be appointed at an inaugural meeting of the bank’s board on July 7 within the BRICS summit. An Indian representative is expected to be appointed the bank’s first president. A Brazilian representative will take the post of the chairman of the board of directors. A Russian representative (Finance Minister Anton Siluanov) will be appointed chairman of the board of governors.