Summing up the meeting, Medvedev described it as “very interesting and productive.”

Watch Dmitry Medvedev’s speech

The summit, initially planned for Friday, was moved forward due to a strong earthquake that hit China and killed at least 700 people and left about 100,000 homeless. As a result, the country’s president, Hu Jintao, had to return to Beijing, while the other three leaders expressed their condolences.

In spite of Jintao’s unfortunate departure, the heads of the world’s top four emerging markets had managed to do quite a lot during their one-day meeting, including bilateral talks that were held on the sidelines of the summit. Overall, the meeting has been deemed a success.

Following the second BRIC summit the leaders issued a communiqué. Among other things, they stressed “the central role played by the G20 in combating the crisis through unprecedented levels of coordinated action,” the document published by Reuters reads.

Also, they expressed “strong commitment to multilateral diplomacy with the United Nations playing the central role in dealing with global challenges and threats”. The leaders have once again called for a reform of the organization in order to make it more “effective, efficient and representative.”

In addition, the leaders reiterated the position voiced on a number of occasions earlier saying that India and Brazil – as important players on the international arena – should “play a greater role” in the UN.

The leaders also urged the necessity for a “reformed and more stable financial architecture that will make the global economy less prone and more resilient to future crises.”

According to the leaders, “deepened and broadened dialogue and cooperation of the BRIC countries is conducive not only to serving the common interests of emerging market economies and developing countries, but also to building a harmonious world of lasting peace and common prosperity.”

The four leaders have also agreed that China will host the third BRIC summit.

Meanwhile, on the sidelines of the summit, Russia’s Vnesheconombank, the China Development Bank, Brazil’s National Bank of Social and Economic Development, and the Export-Import Bank of India signed a memorandum that envisages the creation of a common Interbank System.

Its main aim will be financing high-tech, innovation and energy-saving projects.

Business consultant Philip de Leon says that, first and foremost, it is economic interests that bring the four BRIC nations together.

“They are just getting together to do business and if you look at what they have achieved today – it’s not any political declaration or anything; they have just signed contracts. The Chinese signed a major contract with Brazil to build a steel plant. It will be the biggest Chinese investment in Latin America. They also signed an oil partnership agreement. And then everybody else is coming, and since they are around, they are doing business,” he said. “It’s definitely a shift in bilateral relation with a greater focus and diversification, like President Medvedev was in Argentina for the first time ever as a head of state of Russia.”

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