RT.COM – October 22, 2024

BRICS to make ‘important decisions’ in Kazan – Putin

Members will discuss how to further strengthen cooperation in the economic group, the Russian president said

BRICS members are expected to reach decisions on a range of critical issues aimed at strengthening and improving cooperation within the group, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday at its annual gathering, being held this year in the city of Kazan.

He made the remarks during a meeting with Indian Prime Minister NarendraModi, who is also attending the 16th BRICS Summit.
BRICS

“In Kazan, we must make a whole series of important decisions aimed at further improving the activities of the association and strengthening multifaceted cooperation within its framework,” he stated. Putin said leaders would begin their negotiations after dinner following the summit’s opening ceremony on Tuesday.

Dozens of foreign leaders have gathered in Russia’s fifth-largest city for three days of intense discussions and high-level bilateral talks. The group aims to offer a new vision of global multilateralism.

On Tuesday, the Russian leader also held high-level meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping and South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa. Earlier in the day, Putin met with the president of the BRICS New Development Bank (NDB), DilmaRousseff.

BRICS was initially founded in 2006 by Brazil, Russia, India, and China, with South Africa joining the group in 2010. This year, four more countries officially joined the bloc, including Egypt, Iran, Ethiopia, and the United Arab Emirates. Saudi Arabia, which has also been invited to become a member and participates in BRICS events, has not finalized the ratification process.

Putin earlier said that some 30 nations had shown interest in cooperating with the group in various formats.

BRICS is expected to announce new members at the summit, as well as introducing a new ‘partner member’ status. According to Russian presidential aide YuryUshakov, a total of 13 nations are currently seeking partner status. He told the media on Tuesday that “consultations” are being held between member delegations on the issue and that it will be reviewed by BRICS leaders.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said that opinions vary on whether the group should accept new members.

https://www.rt.com/news/606152-putin-brics-summit-important-decisions/

 Al Jazeera – October 22, 2024

Russia’s BRICS summit:
What’s on the agenda and why it matters to Putin

The summit, which leaders from two dozen nations will attend, is the largest event Russia has hosted in years — and a signal to the West amid the war in Ukraine, analysts say.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is hosting the annual BRICS summit, which started on Tuesday, in Russia’s southwestern city Kazan.

The three-day conclave will be the largest gathering of world leaders in Russia in decades and will be held at a time when the Kremlin is locked in a war with Western-backed Ukraine.

What is BRICS?

BRICS stands for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

The group started in 2006, and Brazil, Russia, India and China convened for the first BRIC summit in 2009. South Africa joined a year later.

The aim of the alliance is to challenge the economic and political monopoly of the West. The group sets priorities and has discussions once every year during the BRICS summit, which members take turns hosting. The summit is the 16th held.

In 2023, BRICS extended invitations to include Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates after these countries applied for membership. Saudi Arabia has yet to formally join, but the others have.

An invitation was extended to Argentina at the same time, but the South American country turned it down after President Javier Milei, elected in December, campaigned on the promise that he would bolster ties with the West.

Who is attending the BRICS summit?

Two dozen world leaders attended the opening of the summit on Tuesday.

Leaders of BRICS member countries – including Indian Prime Minister NarendraModi, Chinese President Xi Jinping and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa – are attending the summit.

UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Iranian President MasoudPezeshkian, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed have also all landed in Kazan for the summit.

Leaders of several other countries that have shown an interest in deepening ties with BRICS are also participating, including Turkish President RecepTayyipErdogan and Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh.

Brazilian President LuizInacio Lula da Silva cancelled his trip to Russia after suffering a head injury in a fall at home on October 19. Foreign Affairs Minister Mauro Vieira will now represent the country at the summit.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is also expected to attend – and meet Putin. On Monday, Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs criticisedGuterres, saying that while he did not accept an invitation to attend a Ukraine-backed peace summit in Switzerland in June, “he did, however, accept the invitation to Kazan from war criminal Putin. This is a wrong choice that does not advance the cause of peace. It only damages the UN’s reputation.”

In March 2023, the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague issued an arrest warrant against Putin, accusing him of the war crime of illegal deportation of children from Ukraine.

What is on the summit’s agenda?

The central theme that unites BRICS members is their disillusionment with Western-led institutions of global governance, especially when it comes to the economy.

The sanctions imposed on Russia after its 2022 invasion of Ukraine have spooked many Global South nations worried that the West could weaponise tools of global finance against them.

“In the aftermath of the war in Gaza, Russia and China have more effectively harnessed this anti-Western sentiment, capitalising on frustrations over Western double standards as well as the use of sanctions and economic coercion by the West,” AsliAydintasbas, a Turkish foreign policy expert, said in comments to the Brookings Institute, a Washington, DC, think tank. “It doesn’t mean that middle powers want to trade US dominance for Chinese, but it means they are open to aligning with Russia and China for a more fragmented and autonomous world.”

To that end, BRICS partners want to reduce their dependence on the United States dollar and the SWIFT system, an international messaging network for financial transactions that Russian banks were cut off from in 2022.

In 2023, Lula proposed a trading currency for BRICS members. But experts have cautioned that any such initiative might be riddled with challenges. In August, Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar also expressed scepticism about how realistic a BRICS currency might be.

Instead, BRICS members are now working on using their national currencies more for bilateral trade to insulate them from currency fluctuations and cut their dependence on the dollar.

“China now has an alternative to the SWIFT payment system, though limited in use, and countries like Turkey and Brazil increasingly restructure their dollar reserves into gold,” Aydintasbas said. “Currency swaps for energy deals are also a popular idea – all suggesting a desire for greater financial independence from the West.” 

Why is the summit significant for Putin?

Since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the country and its leader have grown isolated.

A month after the start of the invasion, Canada, the European Union, Japan, New Zealand, Taiwan, the United Kingdom and the US unveiled a slew of sanctions on Russian banks, oil refineries and military exports. There have been more sanctions on Russia and its allies since.

The ICC arrest warrant against Putin also means he can’t travel to countries that are signatories to the Rome Statute, a UN treaty that established the court, without risking arrest. In 2023, he skipped the BRICS summit in South Africa, which is a party to the treaty, amid pressure on Pretoria to detain the Russian leader if he were to attend.

Western leaders are also largely unwilling to join Putin in any multilateral setting. Putin skipped the G20 summit in India last year even though New Delhi is not a party to the Rome Statute.

Against that backdrop, “the Kazan summit has great symbolic and practical importance for the Putin regime,” Angela Stent, director of the Center for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies at Georgetown University, said in comments to the Brookings Institute. “The summit will demonstrate that, far from being isolated, Russia has important partners like India, China and other major emerging powers.”

The expanded BRICS group now represents about 45 percent of the world’s population and 25 percent of global gross domestic product.

What’s next for BRICS?

BRICS is continuing to expand.

Southeast Asian countries have recently expressed an interest in joining the alliance.

At the BRICS Dialogue with Developing Countries held in Russia on June 11, Thailand said it wanted to join.

On June 18, Malaysia expressed interest in being part of BRICS just before Chinese Premier Li Qiang visited the country.

NATO member Turkey also formally requested to join BRICS in September.

“That so many countries are willing to go to Russia, deemed a pariah state not so long ago for having violated international law by invading Ukraine, confirms a trend followed by an increasing number of countries in the world: They don’t want to have to choose between partners,” said Tara Varma, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institute.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/10/22/russias-brics-summit-whats-on-the-agenda-and-why-does-it-matter

Anadolu Agency – October 22, 2024

Global leaders arrive in Russia's city of Kazan for BRICS summit

As many as 22 heads of state and 6 heads of international organizations expected to attend event

The leaders of BRICS countries are arriving in Kazan to participate in the organization's summit on Tuesday, with as many as 22 heads of state and six heads of international organizations expected to attend the event.

Thirty-six high-ranking officials will also participate in the BRICS summit, according to a statement from the bloc.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is scheduled to hold five bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the event on Tuesday, including with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Indian Prime Minister NarendraModi, and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa — all representatives of BRICS founding countries.

The talks in Kazan will mark the third face-to-face meeting between the heads of Russia and China this year. In May, Putin paid a state visit to China, and in July, he met with Xi on the sidelines of the SCO summit in Astana.

Modi is visiting Russia for the second time this year, as Putin and the Indian leader last met in Moscow in July.

Last year, the South African president visited Russia twice — as part of the group of leaders of the African Peace Initiative and during the second Russia-Africa summit in St. Petersburg. This year, Putin and Ramaphosa have spoken twice on the phone.

Since Jan. 1, Russia has been chairing the BRICS under the motto of strengthening multilateralism for equitable global development and security. As part of its presidency, it will organize more than 200 political, economic, and social events. The central event will be the summit in Kazan, which continues until Oct. 24.

https://www.yenisafak.com/en/world/global-leaders-arrive-in-russias-city-of-kazan-for-brics-summit-3693220

Anadolu Agency – October 22, 2024

Türkiye 'sincerely' wants to improve its cooperation with BRICS: President Erdogan

On eve of his joining summit as guest, Erdogan also says BRICS summit in Russia could instrumental in enhancing Türkiye's cooperation with bloc

Türkiye “sincerely” wants to improve its cooperation with the BRICS group, President RecepTayyipErdogan said on Tuesday.

Speaking at a gathering of Justice and Development (AK) Party officials in the capital Ankara, Erdogan also said he believes the current BRICS summit in the Russian city of Kazan will be instrumental in enhancing Türkiye's cooperation with the bloc.

The leaders of BRICS countries are arriving in Kazan to take part in the organization's summit on Tuesday, with as many as 22 heads of state and six heads of international organizations expected to attend.

Attending as a guest, Erdogan is due to arrive on Wednesday.

The three-day summit of BRICS includes longtime members Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa – the source of the group's name – along with recent additions Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates.

https://www.yenisafak.com/en/news/turkiye-sincerely-wants-to-improve-its-cooperation-with-brics-president-erdogan-3693238

Anadolu Agency – October 22, 2024

Russia, China vow to boost coordination in global affairs: Putin

MOSCOW: President Vladimir Putin hailed exemplary relations between Russia and China, saying that they are an example of how relations between countries should be built, as he said both countries aim to boost coordination in global affairXi & Putins.

Speaking during a meeting with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Russia's city of Kazan, Putin said despite the severe external pressure the two countries continue increasing bilateral trade and developing ties in many other sectors.

The relations between the two countries have equal, and mutually respectful character, with Moscow and Beijing strengthening coordination in global affairs, he stated.

For his part, Xi said the Russian-Chinese relations are not directed against third countries, and the global shifts cannot affect the friendship between Moscow and Beijing.

China and Russia, he added, have found the "right” way for neighboring major countries to get along with each other which features "non-alliance, non-confrontation and not targeting any third party,” said a statement from the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

"The two presidents have always paid great attention to and steadily steered the direction of China-Russia relations," the statement said, adding that the two sides have acted in the "spirit of lasting good-neighborliness and friendship, comprehensive strategic coordination, and mutually beneficial and win-win cooperation, and kept deepening and expanding their comprehensive strategic coordination and all-round, practical cooperation."

"The world today is facing momentous transformations unseen in a century, resulting in a fast-changing and turbulent international landscape. Yet President Xi expressed his confidence that the profound and lasting friendship between China and Russia will not change, nor will the two major countries’ sense of responsibility for the world and for the people," the statement concluded.

The talks in Kazan marked the third face-to-face meeting between the heads of Russia and China this year. In May, Putin paid a state visit to China, and in July, he met with Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the SCO summit in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan.

https://www.dailysabah.com/world/asia-pacific/russia-china-vow-to-boost-coordination-in-global-affairs-putin
 

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