Dilma should take over the Brics bank with reinforcement in the dialogue with Putin and Xi Jinping

After the departure of Marcos Troyjo from the Brics bank, on March 24, former president Dilma Rousseff must be approved as the new leader of the institution the following day, March 25. The New Development Bank (NBD) is the financial institution of the Brics, a bloc comprising South Africa, Brazil, China, India and Russia.

Dilma’s formalization ceremony in office, with the presence of the former president and president Lula, should take place at the institution’s headquarters, in Shanghai, on the 30th, during the trip of the Brazilian entourage to China.

NBD sources claim that the approval on the 25th, by the bank’s governors, is a more administrative step in the transition process. And on the 30th, the most formal step takes place, of making Dilma official in office.

The former president participated in virtual audiences with the Ministers of Economy over the last few days, as part of the rite of approval of her nomination. According to Dilma’s press office, she met with the ministers of China and Russia on Thursday (2nd) and Friday (3rd). And with the ministers of India and South Africa on Monday (6) and Tuesday (7).

welcome

Both Lula government sources and people who work in the NBD and are not allied with the PT claim that Dilma was very well received at the meetings and there is a positive expectation about the former president’s performance in office.

All report the same perception: the fact that Dilma is a former president and very close to Lula, opens a direct channel of dialogue with Chinese presidents, Xi Jinping, and Russian presidents, Vladimir Putin. This facilitated access should strengthen the bank’s importance, especially in view of the impasses brought to the bloc’s performance by the fact that one of its members, Russia, is in the midst of a war.

A person with knowledge of the matter says that he has easy access to at least four of the five heads of state and this is “priceless” for any multilateral body.

The fact that Dilma was one of the founders of the bank, in 2014, and having experience leading infrastructure programs also make the former president “adherent to the bank’s mandate”, say the sources.

Dilma’s nomination solves an internal political issue for the PT government, as it guarantees a weighty post to the former president, who was not nominated for ministries because of internal popular rejection. The view is that Dilma does not have the rejection abroad that he has inside the country.

At the same time, the nomination of the former president reinforces Lula’s objective of strengthening Brazil’s alliance with countries in the global South and, thus, reducing dependence on financing from institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Within the government, there is a view that these organizations require counterparts to loans, such as privatizations, which serve the interests of rich countries – their main financiers – and do not match the reality of emerging countries.