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Taking part in the summit were Dmitry Medvedev, President of Brazil Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh, and President of China Hu Jintao.

Subjects discussed included cooperation on overcoming the global financial and economic crisis and international efforts to promote post-crisis development, including through the G20’s work, responding to new threats and challenges, including international terrorism and nuclear security in the light of the Washington summit, climate change issues, and new avenues for cooperation within the  Background information BRICS BRIC group. Regional issues discussed included the Iranian nuclear programme, Middle East peace settlement, and the situation in Haiti.

The BRIC leaders ended their summit by adopting a joint declaration setting out their common vision of development in the world today.

The summit participants responded with understanding to China’s request to cut the summit programme short by one day after Chinese President Hu Jintao decided to return to China immediately following the earthquake in Qinghai Province.

This was the second summit bringing together the heads of state of Brazil, Russia, India and China. The first BRIC summit took place in June 2009 in Yekaterinburg in Russia, and the third summit will take place in China in 2011.

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Press Statement following Signing of BRIC Summit Declaration

President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev: Ladies and gentlemen,

Today we continue the dialogue between the BRIC countries that we began with our summit last year in Yekaterinburg. I agree with my colleagues in that we held very interesting and productive talks that reaffirmed the fact that we are developing our relations in all different areas. I also want to thank our hosts, with President of Brazil Lula da Silva at their head, for their hospitality and for the tremendous work that went into organising this summit. The Brazilian President said just now that we are all tired, but I think that we were in good spirits as we made the decisions just taken, and I think these decisions are in keeping with our true objectives.

I also want to thank my colleagues, President of China Hu Jintao and Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh, for their productive work, and I express my admiration for the big organisational effort that our teams put into preparing this summit. 

Russia is interested in developing the BRIC countries’ cooperation so as to help resolve a whole range of complex issues before us, including what were probably the biggest issues on our agenda today, namely, working together on overcoming the global financial crisis, strengthening international financial institutions, and building a fairer and more democratic international system in general. The joint declaration that we adopted reflects in full our common approach to these most complex issues on the international agenda.

We agreed to continue discussing these matters, at expert level among our respective countries’ representatives, through dialogue at the ministerial level, and at the top level, through talks between our countries’ leaders. 

We discussed ways in which we can respond to other global challenges facing humanity today, including international terrorism, fighting organised crime and preventing drugs trafficking. I think the issues we discussed here reflect in full measure the range of problems facing our countries today. The BRIC format is indeed becoming a full-fledged platform giving us the opportunity to coordinate our efforts and make concrete decisions, including the decisions that were just approved here with the conclusion of the agreement that the heads of our development banks just signed.

I am sure we will continue these kinds of contacts, and continue to coordinate our work in the interests of our peoples, and I am confident that the decisions this summit has produced will be successfully carried out.

Once more, I thank my colleagues for their productive and committed participation.