New Delhi [India], September 11 (ANI): Russian President Vladimir Putin has stated that the level of cooperation within BRICS is increasing enormously, Petr Sizov, Press Secretary of Russian Embassy in India, said on Friday as he expressed optimism about the deliberations at the 18th BRICS Summit, which formally begins tomorrow in New Delhi.Sizov spoke in Hindi about the growing strength of the grouping that has India, China and Russia among its prominent members.“Mein umeed karta hu ki yeh sabse jabardast community hoga (I have hopes that this will be a great community),” he told ANI.Sizov also referred to President Putin’s remarks at the BRICS Business Forum meeting in which he compared the contribution of BRICS countries to world GDP with that of the G7 countries.”We are very impressed by the speech of President Putin and PM Narendra Modi. President Putin emphasized that the level of cooperation within the organisation is increasing enormously and he compared the growth of economies of our organisation and the so-called Big 7…Almost half of the population are now the members of our organisation in BRICS. I am sure that tomorrow, on the multilateral meetings, most of the important things will be discussed,” Sizov said.In his speech, President Putin said that that over the last five years, more than 40% of the world’s GDP has been produced by the BRICS countries and the “contribution of the so-called G7, the Great 7 – I don’t know why they call that – stands at only 29%”.“Speaking about the growth of the world economy over the same period, we see that more than half of that growth has been accounted for by BRICS, whereas the G7 has only accounted for 18%. Why is that? The answer is simple, BRICS countries account for more than half of the world’s population and that is why, they have a great dynamic, vibrant, domestic markets,” President Putin added.PM Modi and President Putin on Friday discussed closer trade ties, including implementation of the Programme for Economic Cooperation 2030, as well as cooperation in infrastructure, energy, technology, defence and culture.The meeting took place on the sidelines of the 18th BRICS Summit and was the second meeting between the two leaders in less than two weeks. They had earlier met on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit in Bishkek on August 31.Both the leaders later on addressed the BRICS Business forum, with PM Modi urging the BRICS Business Council to prepare a report identifying the top 10 trade barriers among BRICS nations and called for supporting 100 BRICS startups annually to expand into other member markets. (ANI)(This content is sourced from a syndicated feed and is published as received. The Tribune assumes no responsibility or liability for its accuracy, completeness, or content.)