Putin hosting summit of emerging economies

UFA, Russia, July 8 (UPI) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Ufa on Wednesday as he prepares to host a summit of leaders from emerging economies interested in independence from the International Monetary Fund, among other issues.

The BRICS Summit will address billion-dollar initiatives aimed at advancing its five members: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

"The BRICS Summit in Ufa is probably the most important and nerve-racking than even the year of its launch," Victoria V. Panova, the Strategy Planning adviser at the National Committee on BRICS Research, told UPI. "Expectations include supporting Russia's longstanding view of necessity to deepen BRICS' cooperation with practicalities of... enhancing ties in all areas of social, economic and political life through outreach with involvement of different stakeholders."

The members will also tackle solutions to social problems.

"Priority social issues on the agenda, like healthcare, education [and] labor would certainly take their proper place with a number of concrete proposals," Panova said. "Political problems of regional conflicts, combat against illegal drug trafficking and terrorism will be discussed to demonstrate a consensus."

In May, Russia's upper house of Parliament ratified a proposal to establish a $100 billion foreign currency reserve pool for BRICS countries. This would be devoted to protecting national currencies so members would no longer be dependent on the International Monetary Fund.

The creation of the development bank will serve as an alternative to the IMFO, a key initiative this week. The financial institution would be located in Shanghai and headed by K.V. Kamath, an Indian private banker for the first six years. Five-year terms each for Brazil and Russia would then follow.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with Putin on Monday, as India and Pakistan are set to become full members of the SCO. India applied to become a full member in 2014 while Pakistan's request has been pending for years. Both countries are currently observers. Besides Russia and China, SCO's members are the former Soviet republics of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.