"BRICS is the heir to the Non-Aligned Movement," Lula told leaders. BRICS nations now represent more than half the world's population and 40% of its economic output, Lula noted in remarks on Saturday to business leaders warning of rising protectionism. The original BRICS group gathered leaders from Brazil, Russia, India and China at its first summit in 2009. However, there are questions about the shared goals of an increasingly heterogeneous BRICS group, which has grown to include regional rivals along with major emerging economies. The leaders' joint statement backed plans to pilot a BRICS Multilateral Guarantees initiative within the group's New Development Bank to lower financing costs and boost investment in member states, as first reported by Reuters last week.
