Financial cooperation and BRICS expansion are on the table as Putin hosts Global South leaders

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This article was published 23/10/2024 (681 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

KAZAN, Russia (AP) — Russia’s President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday hosted China’s Xi Jinping, India’s Narendra Modi and other world leaders at a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, part of the Kremlin’s efforts to challenge Western global clout.

Putin said the agenda covered the deepening of financial cooperation, including the development of alternatives to Western-dominated payment systems, as well as settling regional conflicts and moving to expand the BRICS group of countries.

“The BRICS strategy in the global arena conforms with the strivings of the main part of the global community, the so-called global majority,” Putin said at the start of Wednesday’s meeting. “This approach is especially relevant in the current conditions when truly radical changes are underway across the globe, including the shaping of a multipolar world.”

The alliance that initially included Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa has expanded to embrace Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. Turkey, Azerbaijan and Malaysia have formally applied to become members, and several other countries have expressed interest in joining.

The three-day summit in the city of Kazan that began Tuesday is attended by 36 countries, highlighting the failure of U.S.-led efforts to isolate Russia over its actions in Ukraine. The Kremlin touted the summit as “the largest foreign policy event ever held” by Russia.

The Kremlin has cast BRICS as a counterbalance to the Western-dominated global order and redoubled its efforts to court the countries of the Global South after sending troops into Ukraine in February 2022.

Russia has specifically pushed for the creation of a new payment system that would offer an alternative to the global bank messaging network SWIFT and allow Moscow to dodge Western sanctions and trade with partners.

Speaking at the summit, Putin accused the U.S. of “weaponizing” the dollar and described it as a “big mistake.”

“It’s not us who refuse to use the dollar,” he said. “But if they don’t let us work, what can we do? We are forced to search for alternatives.”

He also proposed creating a new BRICS investment platform, saying that it could “become a powerful tool for supporting our economies, and would also provide financial resources to countries of the Global South and East.”

In a joint declaration, the summit participants voiced concern about “the disruptive effect of unlawful unilateral coercive measures, including illegal sanctions” and reiterated their commitment to enhancing financial cooperation within BRICS. They noted the benefits of “faster, low-cost, more efficient, transparent, safe and inclusive cross-border payment instruments built upon the principle of minimizing trade barriers and non-discriminatory access.”

Putin and Xi had announced a “no-limits” partnership weeks before Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. They already met twice earlier this year, in Beijing in May and at a Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Kazakhstan in July.

On Wednesday, Xi emphasized the bloc’s role in ensuring global security. “We must work together to build BRICS into a primary channel for strengthening solidarity and cooperation among Global South nations and a vanguard for advancing global governance reform,” he said.

Xi noted that China and Brazil have put forward a peace plan for Ukraine and sought to rally broader international support for it. Ukraine has rejected the proposal.

“We must uphold the three key principles: no expansion of the battlefields, no escalation of hostilities, and no fanning flames and strive for swift deescalation of the situation,” Xi said of the Ukrainian conflict.

Russia’s cooperation with India has also flourished as New Delhi sees Moscow as a time-tested partner since Cold War times despite Russia’s close ties with India’s main rival, China. Western allies want India to be more active in persuading Moscow to end the fighting in Ukraine, but Modi has avoided condemning Russia while emphasizing a peaceful settlement.

“We support dialogue and diplomacy, not war,” Modi said during Wednesday’s BRICS meeting in remarks carried by the Indian foreign ministry. Modi’s visit to the summit marked his second trip to Russia in three months.

“As a diverse and inclusive platform, BRICS can play a positive role in all areas,” Modi said.

Putin on Wednesday met on the sidelines of the summit with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, hailing “truly friendly” ties between Moscow and Tehran and noting that they should be further cemented by a “comprehensive strategic partnership treaty” to be signed during Pezehskian’s planned trip to Moscow. The date for that visit hasn’t been set yet, but Kremlin foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov said it could happen soon.

On Thursday, Putin was set to meet Thursday with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who has repeatedly criticized Moscow’s actions in Ukraine and is making his first visit to Russia in more than two years. Guterres’s trip to Kazan has drawn an angry reaction from Kyiv.

“This is a wrong choice that does not advance the cause of peace,” Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said on X, adding that “it only damages the U.N.’s reputation.”

Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for Guterres, responded to the Ukrainian criticism by saying that the visit is “a standard practice in attending meetings of organizations with large numbers of important member states, such as the G7 and the G20.”

“There’s a meeting with great importance for the work of the United Nations, with the BRICS countries representing about half the world’s population,” Haq said.

In the meeting with Putin, Guterres “will reaffirm his well-known positions on the war in Ukraine and the conditions for a just peace based on the UN Charter, international law, and the resolutions of the United Nations. He will continue to pursue his efforts to re-establish safe navigation in the Black Sea, which is critically important for global food and energy security, especially for the most vulnerable countries around the world,” Haq said