Russia hosts BRICS summit, pushes new world order agenda to Western rivals

Russia will roll out the red carpet for its political allies as it hosts the latest BRICS summit on Tuesday, pushing its plan to create a “new world order” that challenges the West.

The group was initially made up of Brazil, Russia, India and China before South Africa joined in 2010, making this group of rapidly developing economies its current name. It has since transformed into a political platform for the most powerful countries in the world outside the West.

BRICS now has more momentum after Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates joined the group in January, with membership becoming an attractive opportunity for countries looking to boost trade, investment and economic development.

Russia was trying to influence what was collectively known as the “Global South” – or the developing economies of Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America – and in contrast to the “Global North” of industrialized countries, usually led by the US.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has often commented on his desire to establish what he calls a “new world order” to compete with and usurp the political and economic preeminence enjoyed by the West led by the US.

Russia, which holds the presidency of the volatile and economically divided BRICS and has been largely sanctioned by the West, could also turn to this year’s summit to show that it still commands respect around the world and has powerful allies willing to turn a blind eye to its ongoing war. in Ukraine.

Putin described the strengthened BRICS group as “a strong indicator of the growing authority of the organization and its role in international affairs” and signaled on Friday that he intends a way called “BRICS +” to challenge the West. both the geopolitical and economic fronts.

“The countries in our association are the ones that promote economic growth in the world. In the future, BRICS will significantly increase the world’s GDP,” Putin told officials and businessmen last Friday at the BRICS business forum in Moscow, which preceded the group’s meeting. Conference, in comments translated by Reuters.

“The economic growth of BRICS members will be highly dependent on external influence or interference. This is economic independence,” Putin added.

Earlier in October, Putin said that Moscow is open to using the conference to discuss with its partners “the limits of cooperation in the growing multipolar world, and is open to discuss issues of building a new world order with all our friends, partners and like-minded people,” he said, according to the agency. Russian government news outlet Tass.

Putin added that “in this spirit we are preparing for the BRICS summit with Outreach/BRICS Plus,” referring to the final day of the three-day summit where officials from nearly 40 countries in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America will attend as part of the group’s bid to expand relations “with Global South.”

The expansion of the BRICS alliance is important and practical, one security analyst told CNBC.

“It is an indication of a group from the West, a manifestation of a fundamental change in the world order that wants to challenge the Western economy,” Callum Fraser, a researcher on Russian and Eurasian security at the Royal United Services Institute. (RUSI) think tank, told CNBC on Monday.

Fraser added that “it remains unclear to what extent BRICS+ will be able to challenge the Western-dominated G7, or to what extent it is able to reconcile its views with the international system.”

“Currently, the main glue that unites them is the desire to achieve a standard of living similar to that of the West which they feel they cannot achieve through cooperation with the West. In the end, BRICS+ is only against the West because it works as an organization. This means that it remains to be seen what BRICS+ will provide to its member countries, but increased cooperation between its members is very likely. ,” he said.

Russia’s chairmanship of the summit “will be used extensively to demonstrate Russia’s strong position in this emerging order,” added Fraser.

The 16th BRICS summit is taking place under the theme of “strengthening international cooperation for development and global security,” the Kremlin says BRICS leaders will exchange views on “issues on the global and regional agenda,” and “because the pillars three main areas of cooperation identified by the Russian chairman: political and security, economic and financial, and cultural and humanitarian ties.

The Kremlin added that a possible expansion of the BRICS group through the establishment of a new category of “partner countries” will also be discussed.

It is not clear whether the elephant in the room – Russia’s ongoing war with Ukraine – will be acknowledged at the summit. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the Izvestia newspaper that the conflict in Ukraine was not on the agenda, but stressed that the participants “can raise this issue at their discretion,” according to the Google version.

The Kremlin appears determined to avoid talking about what it calls its “special military role” in Ukraine, saying the BRICS+ talks will touch on “pressing international issues, with a particular focus on the evolving situation in the Middle East and cooperation between the BRICS countries and the Global South with a view to of sustainable development.”

Putin will hold meetings with various leaders in attendance, including Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

It is also expected that Putin and his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian will sign a “Comprehensive Strategic Partnership agreement” at the summit that would show their commitment to deepening military and defense cooperation. following several years of military and technological exchanges during the war in Ukraine.

Meetings with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and Egyptian President Adel Fattah al-Sisi are also expected this week, according to Yury Ushakov, Putin’s foreign policy aide. Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva canceled his trip to Russia after suffering a head injury in an accident at his home last weekend.

Saudi Arabia, which has been invited to join the BRICS group but has not yet officially accepted, also participated in the recent summit in the southwestern Russian city of Kazan. Argentina decided in 2023 not to qualify for the group, citing a change in foreign policy.