The 16th three-day annual summit of BRICS began on October 22, 2024, in Kazan, the capital of the Republic of Tatarstan in southwest Russia. Kazan is a burgeoning industrial and economic city located at the confluence of the Volga and Kazanka rivers.
BRICS stands for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, the founding members of this rapidly expanding international organization. In addition to the founders, new entrants include Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates. Pakistan is a candidate, expecting that the ongoing BRICS summit may approve its inclusion into this global group.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is presiding over the meetings as the host; the event and its happening in Russia at a time when the West plus USA are antagonized with Moscow over the running devastating warring conflict in Ukraine assumes added significance for President Putin determined to pull down the wall of isolation; ICC, the International Criminal Court, had issued last year arrest warrant of President Putin with reference to Ukraine war but he seems firm to crack apart this “restriction” as he has already planned his visit to Mongolia, an ICC member country.
The politico-economic domination of the West+US is fueling the rapid expansion of the BRICS platform as an economic and diplomatic counterbalance. A separate BRICS currency issuance has already been a topic of off-and-on discussion at previous summits. Sources close to BRICS expect that Russia may propose a dedollarization initiative during the current summit, a move that has cautious support from nearly all BRICS members. China holds a leading position in this effort. Additionally, BRICS Pay, a money exchange card that serves as an alternative to the Western SWIFT interbank exchange system, is already in operation.
The 16th BRICS summit has drawn significant global leadership, including Russian President Vladimir Putin as host, President Xi Jinping of China, Indian Prime Minister NarendraModi, and leaders from South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, the UAE, and Brazil. Additionally, representatives from Armenia, Malaysia, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Turkey, and Vietnam have been invited. In total, 19 world leaders are in attendance. Concurrently, finance ministers and central bank governors are meeting with IMF and World Bank officials in Washington, highlighting parallel global discussions.
So long as the brute Western unilateralism continues to configure the world affairs the greater need for parallel global organizations to neutralize the unilateralism will emerge on the world stage; this competition is an indirect feed for the germs of war-like-globe, in naked term the 3rd world war. World powers who have practical say over the geo-econo-political affairs of the Middle East have so far failed to cultivate Middle Eastern understanding and peace. This failure provides a strong justification to the rest of the member-countries of the international community to seek and build comparatively safer collective platforms for them and for their future generations. In short BRICS is emerging as global fate-maker in the one-sided careened global affairs of today.
—The writer, a retired Secretary in AJK Govt, is a senior columnist, based in Rawalpindi.
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