Brazil, Russia, India, China demand big role in meltdown talks

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Brazil, Russia, India and China are unifying to demand a big role in negotiations to create a new global financial order and prevent another economic meltdown, Brazil's finance minister said Friday. After meeting with top economic officials from the four nations plus Mexico and South Africa, Guido Mantega said they will insist that developing nations have a significant say in deciding how to fix the problems leading to the global financial crisis, which has hit them hard. "We are still directed and controlled by institutions that reflect the economic situation of the 1940s and 1950s," Mantega said. Back then, the so-called BRIC nations were economic backwaters, and China and Russia were ruled by communist regimes. Speaking ahead of a weekend meeting of finance ministers and central bank presidents from the Group of Twenty industrialized and developing economies, or G-20, Mantega said the world financial structure created by rich nations can't be fixed without a strong say from the BRIC nations.