KAZAN, RUSSIA: Leaders from two dozen nations have converged in Russia’s southwestern city of Kazan, for the annual BRICS summit which started on Tuesday.
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 on Western-backed Ukraine. Eswatini is not participating. Prime Minister Russell Dlamini said the country has not been invited to join the group yet.
BRICS which stands for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa started in 2006 when Brazil, Russia, India and China convened for the first summit in 2009, and were joined by South Africa in 2010.
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 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.
Two dozen world leaders attended the opening of the summit on Tuesday.
Leaders of BRICS member countries – including Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chinese President Xi Jinping and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa – are attending the summit.
UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, 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 Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva cancelled his trip to Russia after suffering a head injury in a fall at home on October 19. Minister of Foreign Affairs Mauro Vieira is now representing the country at the summit.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is also attending – and is expected to meet Putin on Thursday.
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 full-scale invasion of Ukraine have spooked many Global South nations, worried that the West could weaponise tools of global finance against them.
To that end, BRICS partners want to reduce their dependence on the US 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, India’s Minister of External Affairs 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.”
The expanded BRICS group now represents about 45 percent of the world’s population and 25 percent of the global gross domestic product (GDP).
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.
Jm/wire agencies/today/23.10.2024
