The Secretary General of the UN, Antonio Guterresarrived this Wednesday in the Russian city of Kazan to attend the XVI summit of the BRICS group, on the sidelines of which he will meet with the president of Russia, Vladimir Putin.
This will be the first time that Guterres and Putin will see each other since April 2022two months after the beginning of the Russian military campaign in Ukraine.
The meeting with the head of the Kremlinwhich will take place next Thursday, is “one of the main reasons for their attendance”, declared the deputy spokesperson for the secretary general, Farhan Haq.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres arrives at Kazan airport to attend the BRICS summit.
Haq has assumed that Guterres will emphasize to Putin “his well-known position on the war in Ukraine and the conditions for a just peace based on the founding charter of the UN and resolutions”, referring to the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine.
António Guterres’ deputy spokesperson highlighted that BRICS countries “represent almost half of humanity” and, therefore, the summit “is of great importance for the work of the UN with the member countries” of that organization.
Precisely Ukraine was quick to launch its protest when it was announced this Tuesday, by the Kremlin, that Putin would meet with the UN representative, since, according to his Ministry of Foreign Affairs, while the leader of world diplomacy remained on the sidelines when the meeting was held the “peace summit” on the war in Ukraine, has now accepted Putin’s invitation.
Russia, China and Brazil advocate deepening financial cooperation
The BRICS group, initially made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africahas expanded to nine members with the integration of Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates and seeks to become a powerful counterweight to the West.
In fact, in the opening speech of the summit, the Russian president assured this Wednesday that more than 30 countries have expressed the desire to join to the block.
Thus, the head of the Kremlin has stressed that attention must be focused on “deepening financial interaction within the BRICS framework” and in “another no less important matter: the further expansion of the group.”
Along these same lines, the president of China, Xi Jinpinghas called on the rest of the bloc’s countries to deepen financial and economic cooperation and has underlined the need to reform the international financial architecture.
Also the Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silvawho participated by videoconference in the meeting after suffering a domestic accident that prevented him from traveling to Kazan, assured that “it is time to advance the creation of alternative payment methods between our nations [en referencia a los miembros de los BRICS]”.
For his part, the Iranian president, Masud Pezeshkianhas expressed his confidence in a prompt signing of a comprehensive agreement with Russia when meeting with the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, in what was his second bilateral meeting in less than a month after the previous one in Turkmenistan.
“I hope that the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Agreement will be finalized before our bilateral meeting and we can sign it. I will personally take responsibility for carrying out the agreement and have given instructions so they can come to me if problems arise“, Pezeshkian conveyed to Putin.
In their joint statement they warn about the negative influence of sanctions
In the joint statement made this Wednesday by the leaders of the BRICS countries, they expressed their “deeply concerned by the persistence of conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa” and “the negative influence of sanctions on the world economy”as reported by the RIA agency.
In the statement, they explained that they have collected “national proposals for mediation for peaceful resolution” in the Russia-Ukraine waralthough they have not revealed from which countries these proposals have come.
The statement also includes the group’s unanimous condemnation of the Israeli bombings against the territory of Lebanon and against humanitarian centers in the Gaza Strip. The BRICS countries also reject the bombing of the Iranian consulate in Damascus last April, as well as the “terrorist attack” with pager devices, which affected hundreds of Hamas members in Lebanon.
“We condemn the death of civilians and the enormous damage caused to civilian infrastructure as a result of Israeli attacks against civilian areas in Lebanon,” says the document, which also calls for an end “immediate” to the hostilities in both Gaza and Lebanon.
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For its part, Nicolas Maduro He stated, upon his arrival in Russia, that the BRICS bloc has become “the epicenter of the new multipolar world, of the new geopolitics, of peace diplomacy” and took the opportunity to highlight the unprecedented participation of a Venezuelan head of state at these summits.
The president of Venezuela met this Wednesday with the presidents of Belarus, Alexandr LukashenkoPalestine, Mahmoud Abbasand Türkiye, Recep Tayyip Erdoganand also with the host leader, Vladimir Putin. The latter has described Venezuela as one of Russia’s “old and reliable partners in Latin America and the world in general” and has highlighted the strengthening of their relations.
Next Thursday, after his press conference at the end of the summit, Putin has planned bilateral meetings, in addition to the Secretary General of the United Nations, with the presidents of Palestine, Laos, Mauritania and Bolivia.
