BRICS Bank Should Become Alternative to Modern Financial Institutions - Cuban President

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The New Development Bank (NDB) of BRICS should become an alternative to modern financial institutions seeking "to obtain resources from the countries of the South," Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said on Thursday.

"The New Development Bank created by BRICS can and should become an alternative to modern financial institutions that have been using outdated recipes for about a century to obtain resources from the countries of the South," Diaz-Canel stated at the BRICS summit in South Africa.

The BRICS summit is being held in Johannesburg from August 22-24. It is attended by the leaders of China, India, Brazil and South Africa. Russia is represented by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, while Russian President Vladimir Putin takes part in the summit via videoconference.

In March 2013, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa agreed to establish the development bank at the fifth annual BRICS summit held in the South African city of Durban. In July 2014, the BRICS states gathered at the next summit in the Brazilian city of Fortaleza and signed an agreement on the establishment of the bank. The NBD came into existence in July 2015 during the inaugural meeting of the bank's board of governors in Moscow. NBD's main objective is to finance infrastructure and sustainable development projects in the BRICS member countries.