Speaking at the press conference that followed the BRICS summit, Vladimir Putin said that he had invited his US counterpart Donald Trump to visit Moscow, but was ready himself to go to Washington for talks if there are appropriate conditions for work.
"As regards meetings, I fully understand that President Trump has a desire to hold further meetings. And I am ready for this. But necessary conditions for work should be created. We are ready for meetings in our countries as well. We are ready to invite President Trump to Moscow. By the way, he has such an invitation, I have invited him… I am also ready to go to Washington. But let me repeat — if there are appropriate conditions for work," Putin told a press conference after the BRICS Summit.
Russia doesn't renounce the US dollar as the euro can't claim the same level of universality yet, Vladimir Putin said at the press conference, adding though that the restrictions on transactions in the dollar were a huge mistake made by the US.
According to the Russian president, the fight against terrorism, coordination of trade and economic policies remain main areas of BRICS work.
"One of the directions — we have discussed this at previous meetings and have touched upon this one way or another during this meeting — is fight against terrorism, coordination of our activities in the area of politics, economy in the broadest sense," Putin told a press conference after the BRICS Summit.
At the same time, Putin noted that there were no plans to increase the number of BRICS member-states yet.
"BRICS plus 'outreach' formats have been established, and we have agreed that for the time being, we would use these formats in order to expand the zone of our influence, to involve in our activities those states that share the principles and values on the basis of which the organization works. We do not plan to increase the number of BRICS members now because those formats that have developed show their effectiveness," Putin said.
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An informal group of regional leaders, BRICS is an acronym referring to Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. The team ‘BRIC' was coined in 2001 by a Goldman Sachs economist to describe four emerging economies, which were expected to rival the G7 countries in terms of GDP. In 2010, they invited South Africa to join the club.
