President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin closed the 2015 BRICS/SCO Summit in Ufa on Friday, declaring it a success.

“BRICS provides a platform for very important external political and economic meetings,” said Putin.

“All in all, in Ufa, 15 states were represented and we had many fruitful discussions.”

The summit, which ran officially for two days, began on Wednesday, with all member states – Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa – in attendance.

Each member state was represented by their respective leaders: Putin, Brazil’s Dilma Rousseff, China’s Xi Jinping, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and South African President Jacob Zuma.

Joining their heads of state were delegations from each country consisting of business people, ministers, and media.

Among the South African delegation was Department of Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies, Minister of Energy Tina Joemat-Pettersson, Minister of Finance Nhlanhla Nene, Eskom acting chief executive Brian Molefe, and chairman of Sekanjalo, Dr Iqbal Surve.

Notable achievements of the summit and of Putin’s year as BRICS president included the implementation of the New Development Bank (NDB) and the Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA), which together had an initial total of US$200 million.

The NDB, which wo

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