The 16th BRICS Summit was held in Kazan, Russia from 22nd to 24th of October where 36 Leaders from different countries came together to discuss issues of mutual interests and global concerns.
Some of the leaders that arrived for the meeting included the President of Russia Vladimir Putin, President of the People’s Republic of China Xi Jinping, President of Egypt Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Prime Minister of Ethiopia Abiy Ahmed, Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi, President of Iran Masoud Pezeshkian, President of South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa, President of the United Arab Emirates Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Brazil Mauro Luiz Iecker Vieira. Before the meeting, the heads of delegations of the BRICS countries posed for an official photograph on the first day.
The agenda includes an exchange of views on current global and regional issues, as well as a discussion of the three dimensions of cooperation promoted by the Russian chairmanship: politics and security, the economy and finance, and cultural and humanitarian exchanges. Particular attention will be paid to the possibility of further BRICS expansion through the establishment of a new partner category, as planned.
On the opening day of the summit, the leaders approved a joint communique, “the Kazan Declaration” which addresses several global crises and challenges and calls for a fairer and more just international order.
The President of Russia, H.E Vladimir Putin was asked questions regarding the financial situation of the African countries, the technologies and the loans given to them by the Western powers.
President Putin said “they were trying to abuse the climate agenda and global warming agenda (the US). They had no solid reasons from the technological point of view, but they were still shutting down everything that had to do with the nuclear power, shutting down everything that had to do with the coal power generation or other traditional energy sources, but has anyone calculated them? No.”
Can Africa countries do without these kind of energy, no, but they impose these solutions on the African countries and other developing countries?” he added.
“Oh yes! Maybe from environmental point of view, these technologies, these instruments are efficient, but they do not have the funds to acquire this technology and they are not given these funds. I believe these are neo colonial instruments when they force these countries to depend on loans on this new technology, and then, yes, they issue loans but on awful conditions. It’s not possible to return these loans to pay out these loans, It’s a colonial tool,” President Putin reiterates.
The President of China, H.E Xi Jinping also gave a speech that touched and captured the leaders who attended the summit and others leaders who missed it when he talked about the wars in Palestine and Lebanon and the shared future of the Global South.
The President said “We should promote early deescalation (of the war) to pave the way for political settlement. Last July, Palestinian factions reconciled with each other in Beijing, marking a key step toward peace in the Middle East. We should continue to promote comprehensive ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and revive the two-State solution. We must stop the flames of war from spreading in Lebanon and end the miserable sufferings in Palestine and Lebanon”.
“We should uphold peace and strive for common security. We should come forward together to form a stabilizing force for peace. We should strengthen global security governance, and explore solutions to address both symptoms and roots of hotspot issues. Many parties have warmly responded to my Global Security Initiative,” President Xi added.
When Mr. Xi talked about development and common interests, he said “The Global South emerges for development and prospers through development. We should make ourselves the main driving force for common development. We should play an active and leading role in the global economic governance reform, and make development the core of international economic and trade agenda. Since its introduction three years ago, the Global Development Initiative has helped make available nearly US$20 billion of development fund and launch more than 1,100 projects”.
The Kazan Declaration that was released on the first day of the summit discussed issues such as the new powers, sovereign equality and new BRICS partners, opposing Western coercion measures, none-discriminatory trade in local currencies, the Middle East and Ukraine.
Find the full Kazan Declaration below.
