Brics want IMF reform for eurozone aid

Moscow - Major emerging economies are ready to provide financial help to the eurozone via the International Monetary Fund but in return want commitments to reform the IMF to be implemented, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday.

The so-called Brics nations “are ready to take part in joint efforts, including the provision of credits, under those rules and channels that exist in the International Monetary Fund”, Lavrov told a news briefing in Moscow.

Lavrov spoke before IMF managing director Christine Lagarde was due to meet President Dmitry Medvedev in Moscow for talks expected to focus on how cash-rich emerging economies can support Europe’s struggle to contain its sovereign debt crisis.

His comments reinforced the joint position towards managing the eurozone sovereign debt crisis taken by the Brics - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - at last week’s Group of 20 summit in Cannes, France.

They also reflected the aversion of Russia, holder of the world’s third-largest foreign exchange reserves, to directly supporting the eurozone’s common bailout fund, the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF).

“It will hardly be possible by simply handing out money to resolve problems that are systemic in character and which affect the financial stability and integrity not only of the eurozone but of the global financial system,” Lavrov said.

“Recent events show that the consequences of the 2008 crisis have not passed and that the work started by the G20 right after the crisis has not been finished.

“This work needs to be completed - above all concerning the full implementation of agreements that were reached earlier on the deep reform of the International Monetary Fund and the international financial system as a whole.”