BRIC Builders

The first summit of leaders from the world's biggest emerging markets ended with demands for a greater voice in the global financial system and a more diversified monetary system. But the inaugural formal gathering of the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) nations had a symbolic weight far greater than its closing statements from the Russian city of Yekaterinburg last week. Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim spoke to Russian NEWSWEEK's Leonid Ragozin at the meeting about BRIC's goals, American unilateralism, Cuba,, and whether the U.S. dollar should remain the world's reserve currency. Excerpts:

[Laughs.] Not to rule the world. I believe it is to help the world to be ruled in a more democratic and diversified way. I think we've gone through many experiences in which groups of countries were a sort of aristocracy in the world politics. I don't think it would be at all useful to re-create anything like that. But if you have more countries playing a more influential role, it's more likely that we have a better world order.

We are living in the world that's changing. Just one example—we have a very important group of a different kind, which is India, Brazil, and South Africa [IBSA]. These are three big developing countries, three big democracies, each on its continent. At the same time we have excellent relations with the U.S. But one has to concede that the vision that people had after the fall of the Berlin Wall that this will be a unipolar world with the U.S. somehow dictating—this is not taking place. The world is becoming more diversified and BRIC is a part of this diversification.

These things are being mentioned from time to time. I personally don't believe this is something that will happen immediately . . . Nobody is interested in weakening the dollar, for the simple fact that we have our reserves in dollars. But I think, gradually, we'll have the transition to more internationally based methods of payments.

Very clearly, we've been working together on this.

Yes, we are happy. He represents change. We've recently had two important meetings in the region with the participation of the U.S. One was the Summit of the Americas, in which President Obama took part. The other was the [Organization of American States] meeting, during which a very obsolete resolution on the exclusion of Cuba was made without effect. I think we'll be able to create good partnerships with the U.S. not only for our mutual benefit, but also in terms of cooperation to the benefit of poor countries. Poor Caribbean and Central American countries could produce ethanol with some good Brazilian technology [smiles] and provide the U.S. market with fuel that will be cheaper and much more efficient than ethanol produced from corn.

We don't want to give lessons to any countries. We have very good economic and cultural relations with Cuba. If that helps to change Cuban society, to make it more open with more room for private enterprise, so much the better. We salute the fact that the Cubans decided to sign the Civil and Political Rights Covenant of the U.N. and that they were also able to present a report to the Human Rights Council. The most important factor that will give new dynamism to changes in Cuba is the total elimination of the embargo. I think we are going that way, slowly maybe.

No one should try to be a model for others, because each of us has positive points and negative points. But let me point out two or three areas in which we have been working very hard. One is the better distribution of income. This was one of the weakest points in Brazilian society. Even when the economy was growing and even the poor were getting better, the gap [between the rich and the poor] was still increasing. But in the past five to seven years we've had a real decrease in this gap. Also, in the area of energy, our use of biofuels is also a very good example.

Better coordination at the U.N. and, above all, in the G20. When we started with meetings of foreign and economy ministers, we were not expecting a [financial] crisis like this. But BRIC has proved to be a very good tool for coordinating the positions of these emerging markets which play such a crucial role in the recovery of the world economy.

I am not sure these will be the four largest economies in the world. Politically, these will be very influential countries. Certainly, what we are doing today will be remembered.

Too early to tell. Certainly an association, better coordination. Alliance presupposes that you have an enemy. I don't think we have any enemy. We just want to build a better world.

It is an alternative to unipolar world. But a unipolar world is not sustainable by itself anyway, so we are just helping to create a more multipolar and in that respect – a more democratic world.