From October 22 to 24, the summit of the Brics, a bloc of emerging countries, will bring together in Russia 24 foreign leaders and the Secretary General of the UN, António Guterres, according to the Kremlin which prides itself on “the most important diplomatic event ever organized in Russia”.
From October 22 to 24, the Brics summit (acronym for Brazil, Russia, India, South Africa and China), a bloc of emerging countries, will be held in Russia.
24 foreign leaders as well as the Secretary General of the UN, António Guterres, will have to meet in Kazan, on the banks of the Volga, according to the Kremlin which prides itself on “the most important diplomatic event ever organized in Russia”.
This meeting is seen as a snub to Western sanctions imposed on Russia. It comes as Moscow is gaining ground militarily in Ukraine and has forged close alliances with the United States’ biggest adversaries, namely China, Iran and North Korea.
The Chinese presidents, Xi Jinping, and Iranian presidents, Massoud Pezeshkian, are expected there. Moscow is also counting on the presence of the Indian Narendra Modi and the Turkish Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Due to Mr. Pezeshkian’s presence, summit participants are also expected to discuss the ongoing wars in Gaza and Lebanon, especially as Iran is in full escalation with Israel.
But on these issues, Russia seems to want to keep its distance, limiting itself so far to calling on the parties to exercise restraint.
Alternative
The major Brics summit “aims to show that Russia is not only far from isolated, but that it has partners and allies”, assures AFP political analyst Konstantin Kalatchev, based in Moscow.
The Kremlin considers it “crucial” to demonstrate that “there is an alternative to Western pressures and that the multipolar world is a reality”, according to Mr. Kalachev.
Bringing together “the global South and the East” to act as a counterweight, according to Moscow, to the West, the BRICS must “build brick by brick a bridge towards a fairer world order”, judged the Kremlin’s diplomatic advisor, Yuri Ushakov .
Russian President Vladimir Putin had to give up going to the previous summit in South Africa. He was then the subject of an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court in March 2023, due to the deportation of Ukrainian children of which kyiv accuses Moscow.
Moscow continues to present its assault on Ukraine not as a war of conquest but as a conflict provoked by American hegemonism, despite its claimed annexations of Ukrainian regions.
“Russia seeks relations that are based on international law and not on rules established by particular countries, notably the United States,” said Kremlin spokesperson Dmitri Peskov, claiming the support of “ the overwhelming majority of countries in the world.
For Westerners, Russia is on the contrary in a logic of domination of its neighbors, and seeks to impose a law of the strongest on an international scale.
In presenting his “plan for victory”, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also stressed that a success for Russia would risk being emulated.
“If Putin achieves his insane goals – geopolitical, military, ideological and economic – other potential aggressors will feel that wars of aggression could benefit them,” he argued.
Expansion of the BRICS
With four members (Brazil, China, India and Russia) when it was created in 2009, the Brics bloc was joined by South Africa in 2010 and expanded this year to several other emerging countries, including Egypt. and Iran.
Turkey, a NATO member with a complex relationship with both Moscow and the West, announced in early September that it wanted to join the bloc.
According to Mr. Ushakov, all the BRICS member countries will be represented in Kazan by their leaders, except Saudi Arabia, which will send its head of diplomacy.
The absence of Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, who visited Brussels this week, has fueled speculation about possible disagreements between the world’s two energy heavyweights.
“It is clear that the Kremlin would have liked to see the crown prince,” said Mr. Kalatchev, before adding that ultimately, “everything is going pretty well for the Kremlin.”
With AFP
