BRICS aims to 'build' global ties: Brazil

BRASILIA:

Brazil will seek to build relationships and not worsen an already tense global mood, while holding the rotating presidency of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, a top official told AFP.

Diplomat Eduardo Saboia, head of the BRICS summit to be held in Rio de Janeiro in July, brushed off recent threats from incoming US president Donald Trump to impose 100 percent tariffs on BRICS nations if they undercut the dollar.

Saboia said in an interview Thursday that there was no plan to replace the dollar, but rather to boost the use of local currencies.

"We want to increase trade between us, increase investments and reduce transaction costs. There is a discussion about the use of local currencies in transactions, but not in an impositional way," he said.

"BRICS countries are holders of dollar reserves. But we do have to diversify the options so that economic actors can decide and have the possibility of making more transactions."

The bloc has increasingly emerged as a counterweight to the West, but Saboia said its members did not want ties to deteriorate.