The three-day BRICS summit begins today in Kazan, Russia, marking the largest gathering of foreign leaders in the country since its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin, key participants include Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Brazilian President Lula da Silva canceled his trip due to an injury.
Putin is set to hold 17 bilateral meetings, having invited representatives from 20 countries interested in joining BRICS, including Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Turkey is the only NATO member who applied to join the BRICS alliance on September 2, 2024.
BRICS is an organization of major developing economies, including the founding members Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, the UAE, Ethiopia, and Iran.
According to international media sources [1], [2], the summit’s primary goal is to demonstrate that Western sanctions do not isolate Russia and emphasize that the West is a “global minority. ” The nine BRICS member countries represent nearly 50% of the world’s population, over 35% of global economic output, and have contributed 40% of global GDP growth over the past decade.
Despite differing interests among members, the summit seeks to underscore the organization’s political and economic influence, promote economic cooperation, such as reducing dependence on the U.S. dollar through a proposed BRICS payment system, and highlight members’ positions on major global crises in Ukraine and the Middle East.
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