BRICS summit to begin in South Africa

The 15th summit of the BRICS group of nations, comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, will begin in Johannesburg, South Africa, on Tuesday, August 22, 2023. The summit is being chaired by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and has been given the theme of ‘BRICS and Africa: Partnership for Mutually Accelerated Growth, Sustainable Development, and Inclusive Multilateralism, Azernews reports, citing BRICS.

The BRICS group is an international relations conference attended by the heads of state or heads of government of the five member states. It was formally launched in 2009 and meets yearly at a summit hosted in rotation by one of the member countries. The meetings aim to assert their position, particularly in relation to the United States and the European Union.

The 15th BRICS summit is the first in-person BRICS meeting since 2019 and is expected to be attended by President Xi Jinping of China, Brazil's President Luiz Lula da Silva, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend in person due to a warrant for his arrest issued by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes in Ukraine, something Moscow denies. Putin, who will be a virtual participant, will be represented in Johannesburg by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

The summit will also be attended by leaders from 67 countries across Africa, Latin America, Asia, and the Caribbean, as well as business leaders and representatives from the United Nations, the African Union Commission, and the New Development Bank.

The agenda for the summit includes discussions on global geopolitics, trade and infrastructure development, and the possibility of BRICS expansion by adding new members. Twenty-three countries have formally applied to become new BRICS members, including Saudi Arabia, Iran, United Arab Emirates, Argentina, Indonesia, Egypt, and Ethiopia.

The BRICS countries also aim to promote the recognition of a multipolar global order with economic and political balance, with the aim of breaking away from organizations formed in the post-World War II era, such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). They are also seeking to dull Western economic domination in global affairs and to free themselves from the US dollar's predominance in world trade.

The BRICS group accounts for more than 40% of the world population and about 26% of the global economy and offers an alternative forum for countries outside diplomatic channels seen as dominated by traditional Western powers.