"If you could create and develop BRICS markets and BRICS trade, you don’t need to depend on Western markets and Western trade. That would make us independent of some unilateral interventions on trade and economics by Western countries,” Samir Saran, vice president of the Observer Research Foundation, said.
He added that one of the reasons why Russia was able to cope with the sanctions imposed on it by Western countries was its enhanced cooperation with China.
"If BRICS could develop institutions which are not controlled by the West, then they could be sure that in the future their financial institutions are not used for political and geopolitical purposes," Saran stressed.
BRICS is a bloc of emerging economies comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
In 2014, BRICS countries signed an agreement to establish the New Development Bank, which is expected to become an alternative to Western-dominated financial institutions and will focus primarily on funding infrastructure projects.
On Wednesday, the establishment of the NDB was ratified by the Chinese parliament after Russian and Indian lawmakers endorsed the organization in April.
