Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and New Development Bank (NDB) president Dilma Rousseff accused the United States, its allies and the Western-dominated financial order of weaponising tariffs and sanctions.
They also used the opening of the Brics bank’s annual meeting to call for new models of development and cooperation across the Global South.
Speaking before finance ministers and governors from Brics nations and new members in Rio de Janeiro, Lula said the NDB was proof that emerging economies could shape their own paths without heavy-handed Western conditionalities.
“The lack of effective reforms in traditional financial institutions has limited, for decades, the amount and type of credit multilateral banks can offer,” Lula said.
The Brazilian president praised the bank’s governance model for ensuring “equality of voice and vote” and for using local currencies. He added that 31 per cent of the bank’s projects today were funded in members’ own currencies.
Developing nations, led by China, have sought to chip away at the dominance of the US dollar and the clout it affords Washington through the global monetary system.
In response, US President Donald Trump has warned Brics, a 10-member bloc of emerging economies, against moving away from the American dollar, threatening 100 per cent tariffs.
Rousseff, who has led the Shanghai-based bank since 2023, echoed Lula’s message, saying that the institution’s mission was more crucial than ever as the world faced overlapping crises.
“Tariffs, sanctions and financial restrictions are being used as tools of political subordination,” she said, without calling out Trump by name.
“The international financial system remains deeply asymmetric, placing the heaviest burdens on those with the fewest resources,” the former Brazilian president added.
As Brazil chairs the 2025 Brics presidency and prepares to host the bloc’s two-day leaders’ summit from Sunday, Lula and Rousseff positioned the NDB, created by the Brics countries in 2014, as a viable alternative to what they described as outdated, “top-down” Western-led institutions.
Brics, an acronym formed from the original members Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, has since added Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates to the group.
The sharp rhetoric of Lula and Rousseff contrasted with the more pragmatic approach of China and India, which remained cautious about antagonising key Western trade partners as they conduct trade talks with the Trump administration. However, both countries called on the bank to prioritise the collective needs of the Global South.
China’s Finance Minister Lan Foan struck a measured tone, avoiding direct mention of tariffs or sanctions. Citing a sluggish global economic recovery and rising risks, he urged the NDB to embody “openness, inclusiveness, and win-win cooperation” to support Global South modernisation.
Lan outlined three priorities: aligning with Global South development needs, expanding membership to amplify their global voice, and creating more innovative financing models, particularly involving local currencies and green technology investments.
Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also emphasised collective action without targeting the West.
“We face a defining moment for the Global South, grappling with fiscal constraints, climate transitions, and shifting geopolitics,” she said. “Our response must be decisive, inclusive, and forward-looking.”
But the Brazilian politicians notched up their critique.
Rousseff recalled that the bank was founded “not just as an institutional milestone, but as a political statement that the Brics and the Global South would no longer be passive recipients of imposed growth models”.
In his speech, Lula warned that without new financing mechanisms, the poorest countries, especially in Africa, Asia and Latin America, would remain trapped in poverty for another century.
Lula went further, blaming the Western financial system and political leadership for failing to address global inequality and conflict.
Despite being advised by Brazilian diplomats not to touch de-dollarisation, he revived the idea of a common trading currency among Brics nations as a way to reduce reliance on the US dollar and protect members from global financial shocks.
“It’s complicated, I know. There are political problems, I know. But if we do not find a new formula, we will end the 21st century the same way we started the 20th,” Lula said.
Not everyone is convinced, however, that pushing for a common Brics currency is realistic or wise for Brazil right now.
Alexandre Coelho, coordinator at the geopolitics centre at Observa China, a Rio de Janeiro think tank, warned that openly discussing a shared currency could spark unnecessary tensions with Washington at a delicate moment.
Coelho said that many Brics countries, including India and South Africa, had distanced themselves from the idea, preferring instead to expand local currency payment systems without giving Washington fresh reasons for trade retaliation.
He said that for Brazil, the bigger risk was losing part of its monetary independence, since any common currency would probably be shaped by China’s far larger economy and stronger currency.
“In practice, that would tie Brazil’s hands to China’s fiscal and monetary policies,” Coelho said, pointing to the euro zone and the Greek crisis in 2009 as a cautionary example of how smaller economies could lose control when joining a currency union dominated by a more powerful partner.
At the time, Greece struggled to adjust its economy to an exchange rate it no longer controlled, and it was forced to adopt deep austerity measures pushed by stronger euro zone members such as Germany to stay solvent.
“When we get distracted by the common currency debate, we waste effort that should go into the transition agenda and our role as a bridge at Cop30,” Coelho added, referencing the UN climate conference that Brazil will also host in November.
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