Putin To Meet President Of BRICS New Development Bank

Russian President Vladimir Putin is set to hold discussions with Dilma Rousseff, the President of the New Development Bank (NDB) at the Konstantinovsky Palace in St. Petersburg on Thursday (June 6). The NDB is the multi-lateral financing vehicle for the BRICS group. While Russia is a major shareholder, it has not been able to participate since 2022 due to concerns over the NDB attracting Western sanctions.

Putin and Rousseff will discuss the bank’s development strategy, and its participation in the financing of various projects, including on the territory of Russia. Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov said that “We have, diplomatically speaking, questions about the activities of this bank, in the creation of which we were directly involved, and these issues will naturally be discussed with the New Development Bank president, including in view of the fact that next year, in July, the rotating presidency in this bank will go to Russia.”

The NDB is a multilateral development bank established by the BRICS states (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa). According to the Agreement on the NDB, “the Bank shall support public or private projects through loans, guarantees, equity participation and other financial instruments.” Moreover, the NDB “shall cooperate with international organizations and other financial entities, and provide technical assistance for projects to be supported by the Bank.”

To date, the NDB has tended to concentrate on infrastructure and green financing. For example, during 2024, it has financed sanitation and wind power projects in Brazil, clean energy infrastructure in Bangladesh, road projects in India and rail infrastructure in South Africa. A complete overview of the bank’s projects can be seen here.

In January this year the NDB issued AA+ rated Panda Bonds, worth RMB 6 billion (US$828 million) for five years priced at 2.66% in the China Interbank Bond Market. This transaction has become not only the largest ever five year Panda bond issuance, but it also marked the first issuance of a Panda bond this year in the China Interbank Bond Market by a multilateral development bank.

The initial authorized capital of the bank is US$100 billion, divided into 1 million shares having a par value of US$100,000 each. The initial subscribed capital of the NDB is US$50 billion, divided into paid-in shares (US$10 billion) and callable shares (US$40 billion). The initial subscribed capital of the bank was equally distributed among the founding members (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa). The Agreement on the NDB specifies that every member will have one vote and that no member would have any veto powers.

The bank is headquartered in Shanghai, with regional offices in Johannesburg, São Paulo, Gujarat and Moscow.