Brazil, Russia invite India, China to summit

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil – Russia and Brazil agreed Wednesday to meet with India and China next year to create a new global financial architecture – a reflection of how economic power is shifting from the United States and Europe.

Brazil, Russia, India and China – emerging markets collectively known as the BRIC nations – “represent a powerful force,” President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said as he stood with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who agreed to host the 2009 summit.

Silva is pushing for big developing nations like Brazil to have a major role in drawing up new regulations for international finance and for a greater voice in the IMF and World Bank.

Medvedev said he and Silva discussed the creation of a “new financial architecture,” Russia’s ITAR-Tass news agency reported.

Silva and Medvedev did not say whether China and India have agreed to the summit, but finance minister of the four countries met on the sidelines of a G20 meeting in Sao Paulo that preceded their leaders’ summit in Washington this month.

The two leaders also discussed increasing cooperation in energy, agriculture and railways, signed a military technology cooperation accord and agreed to cooperate on a satellite program.

On a Latin America trip full of symbols reflecting Russia’s efforts to counter U.S. influence, Medvedev then left for Venezuela, where Russian warships are taking part in joint exercises in a show of military strength. It is Russia’s first Caribbean deployment since the Cuban missile crisis. Medvedev’s visit to Caracas is the first by a Russian president.

The naval deployment is widely seen as a demonstration of Kremlin anger over the U.S. decision to send warships to deliver aid to Georgia after its battles with Russia, and over U.S. plans for a European missile-defense system.