BRICS countries hold the inaugural meeting of the dialogue platform on cooperation in the diamond industry

The inaugural meeting of the BRICS informal dialogue platform for cooperation in the diamond industry was held on the 9th of October in Moscow in a hybrid format on the sidelines of finance ministers and central bank governors’ meeting under the Russian Federation’s BRICS Chairmanship. The meeting took place as a follow-up to the agreements reached at the events of the Russian BRICS Chairmanship, as well as thanks to the support of the initiative by the African Diamond Producers Association (ADPA).

During the meeting representatives of the industry and regulatory authorities from the BRICS countries, as well as invited participants from leading international industry organizations discussed potential areas for developing a regular dialogue in order to ensure the sustainable development of the diamond trade. Following the results of the meeting, the participants agreed on four main areas of work for the dialogue platform: creating added value in supply chains; promoting generic diamond marketing programs in the BRICS markets; ensuring common standards for responsible diamond mining and trade; exchanging best practices.

"The launch of the BRICS+ diamond dialogue platform with the participation of African diamond-mining countries will help strengthen trade and business relations between our countries, create new forms of cooperation and develop a single position of representatives of all segments of the "diamond pipeline" from mine to retail in the common interests of the stable development of the sector. It is important to emphasize that our cooperation is built on the principles of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme as the only universal mechanism for regulating the global trade in rough diamonds," said Russian Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Moiseev.

Within a separate session, representatives of the BRICS countries also discussed the importance of creating unified quality standards and rules for trading precious metals in the BRICS markets. During this discussion the parties supported the need to increase the turnover of precious metals between the countries based on products’ unified quality standards and agreed to make this area of work a separate track.

Summing up the meeting, the members of the association discussed plans for 2025 and a draft statement which was proposed to be reflected in the declaration of the leaders.

The Roscongress Foundation manages the events of Russia’s BRICS chairship.