Moscow - The BRICS Ministers of Foreign Affairs met in Russia's Nizhny Novgorod recently and held a plethora of discussions, including an important one on the enhanced use of local currencies in trade and financial transactions between the BRICS countries.

At the meeting, the ministers recognized the need for a comprehensive reform of the global financial architecture. "They recalled the paragraph 45 of the Johannesburg II Declaration tasking the Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors of the BRICS countries to consider the issue of local currencies, payment instruments and platforms and to report back to the . . .