Russian senator expects Ufa to host BRICS parliamentary forum in July

MOSCOW, May 22. /TASS/. All five BRICS member-states (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) back the idea of establishing a parliamentary forum within the framework of the group, Russian senator Konstantin Kosachev told the BRICS Academic Forum on Friday. "I hope that on July 8 we will be able to also hold a BRICS parliamentary forum," said Kosachev, who chairs the foreign affairs committee in the upper house of parliament, the Federation Council. "The particular participants are yet not known, but there is an understanding that all the five states are interested that the parliamentary dimension should emerge and start developing," he said. Kosachev noted that BRICS work in a humanitarian dimension is only beginning, but this is one of the priorities of the Russian presidency, which the country assumed on April 1, taking over from Brazil. This year, a youth and a civil forum will be also held as part of the BRICS summit in Ufa, Bashkortostan, Kosachev reminded. "I believe that this civil and humanitarian dimension of BRICS is one of the key elements of confidence that everything is serious and for long," he stressed. The BRICS summit in the Russian city of Ufa is due to be held on July 8-9. The BRICS agenda under the Russian presidency includes plans to strengthen strategic stability and international information security, reinforce the non-proliferation regime, and combat international terrorism. The BRICS countries collectively represent about 26 percent of the world’s geographic area and are home to 42 percent of the world’s population. In 2013, the share of the BRICS countries reached 16.1 percent in global trade, 10.8 percent in military spending and 40/2 percent in production of non-renewable energy resources. The BRICS consumer market is the largest in the world and is growing by $500 billion a year. Read more