BRICS aims to 'build' global ties as Trump takes office: Brazil

Diplomat Eduardo Saboia, head of the BRICS summit to be held in Rio de Janeiro in July, brushed off recent threats from incoming US president Donald Trump to impose 100 percent tariffs on BRICS nations if they undercut the dollar.

Saboia said in an interview Thursday that there was no plan to replace the dollar, but rather to boost the use of local currencies.

"We want to increase trade between us, increase investments and reduce transaction costs. There is a discussion about the use of local currencies in transactions, but not in an impositional way," he said.

"BRICS countries are holders of dollar reserves. But we do have to diversify the options so that economic actors can decide and have the possibility of making more transactions."

The bloc has increasingly emerged as a counterweight to the West, but Saboia said its members did not want ties to deteriorate.

"BRICS members are not anti-something, anti-West. On the contrary, after the 2008 crisis, the large developed economies sought the collaboration of BRICS countries in the effort to relaunch the world economy. In English, 'bricks' denotes a desire to build something, BRICS countries come to build, they do not come to worsen things."

Asked about Trump's refusal to rule out military intervention to bring the Panama Canal and Greenland under US control, Saboia declined to weigh in.

"There is no focus on other countries, other leaders. The focus is on collaboration and building a better world," he said.

"We have so many things to do among ourselves... collaborations in science and technology, finance, health and actively participating in international forums, providing a vision of the global South."

BRICS was created in 2009 by founding members Brazil, Russia, India and China.

South Africa joined the following year, and in 2024 the grouping expanded with Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates becoming full members.

Brazil announced the entry of Indonesia last week.