Bric Countries

BRIC or BRICs are the acronym used to refer to the combination of the four biggest emerging-market countries: Brazil, Russia, India and China; which are all deemed to be at a similar stage of newly advanced economic development. It is typically rendered as "the BRICs" or "the BRIC countries" or alternatively as the "Big Four".

BRICs are drive to build a dynamic and harmonious membership by championing free and open trade and investment, promoting and accelerating economic integration, encouraging economic and technical cooperation, and facilitating a favorable and sustainable business environment. Their initiatives turn policy goals into concrete results and agreements into tangible benefits.

The BRIC countries met for their first official summit on 16 June 2009, in Yekaterinburg, Russia, with Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Dmitry Medvedev, Manmohan Singh, and Hu Jintao, the respective leaders of Brazil, Russia, India and China, all attending. The core focus of the summit was related to improving the current global economic situation and discussing how the four countries can better work together in the future, as well as a more general push to reform financial institutions. There was also discussion surrounding how developing nations, such as those members of BRIC, could be better involved in global affairs in the future. In the aftermath of the summit the BRIC nations suggested that there was a need for a new global reserve currency that is 'diversified, stable and predictable'. The statement that was released stopped short of making a direct attack on the perceived 'dominance' of the US dollar, something which the Russians have been critical of; however, it still led to a fall in the value of the dollar against other major currencies. The foreign ministers of the BRIC countries had met previously on May 16, 2008 also in Yekaterinburg.