BRICS Countries Seek Ways to Mitigate COVID-19's Impact

The BRICS countries discussed on Tuesday night the actions to be taken by the bloc's member nations to mitigate the impact of COVID-19.

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The debate took place during the Extraordinary Conference of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the BRICS countries, held on the evening of Tuesday 28 April via videoconference.

The virtual meeting was chaired by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

The Ministers of Foreign Affairs of China Wang Yi, Brazil Ernesto Araujo, India S. Jaishankar and South Africa Naledi Pandor participated.

They agreed to contribute to global public health security and to mitigate the negative effects of the pandemic, a risk not only to the health of humanity and the economy.

"The main risk we are assessing is the widening gap between rich and poor countries," the Russian foreign minister said at a press conference after the meeting.

As an action measure to counteract the consequences of the pandemic, the BRICS countries agreed to create a special credit facility to finance economic recovery projects.

Up to $15 billion will be allocated to help the economies of the bloc's member states recover. Lavrov confirmed.