Putin hosts BRICS summit ahead of G20 he won’t attend – Technologist

Despite Western efforts to isolate it, Russia has no shortage of allies. This is the message that President Vladimir Putin wants to send to “the collective West” as he hosts a major summit of the BRICS – nine countries determined to strengthen the assertiveness of the Global South – from October 22 to 24 in Kazan, the multi-ethnic Russian city on the banks of the Volga.

Putin, who will not be attending the G20 summit in Brazil on November 18 and 19 “so as not to disrupt” it, is holding his own alternative: the BRICS summit. The five founding members – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – have been joined by Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Since its expansion at the Johannesburg summit in August 2023, the group’s appeal has been unprecedented, and its momentum is growing. Thirty countries have since applied for membership, including Thailand and Malaysia, paving the way for a future opening toward Southeast Asia. There have also been membership applications from Turkey, Azerbaijan and Cuba, among many others. “The doors are open, we’re not excluding anyone,” declared Putin at an economic forum in Moscow on Friday, October 18.

Twenty-four foreign leaders, including China’s Xi Jinping, Iran’s Masoud Pezeshkian, Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan and India’s Narendra Modi, as well as UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres, are expected in Kazan, the secular capital of Tatarstan. Presented as a haven of tolerance, the multi-faith city of Orthodox churches and mosques has given its civil servants the day off, as well as limiting alcohol sales and barring access to the city center.

Saudi Arabia, which has never confirmed it’s a member of the BRICS despite receiving an invitation in 2023, will be represented by its foreign minister rather than the Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman. The Brazilian president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, has won’t attend for health reasons.

Image rehabilitation

Described as “the most important diplomatic event ever organized in Russia,” the summit aims, according to Yuri Ushakov, the Russian president’s diplomatic adviser, to “build brick by brick” a bridge toward “a fairer world order”. According to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, Moscow is seeking to forge “relations based on international law, and not on rules established by particular countries, notably the US.” These words are not without irony coming from Russia, which in recent years has attacked and annexed the territories of its neighbors – Georgia in 2008, and Ukraine in 2014 and 2022.

You have 59.54% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.