BRICS summit places Russia in centre of global show
Russian President Vladimir Putin will be meeting this week with, PM Narendra Modi and Chin’s Xi Jinping, the Heads of top economies of the world and two Poles of the four polar world.
Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Iran’s Masoud Pezeshkian, and Heads of many other BRICS States will be there too. Thus predictions of the Western Press that Ukraine conflict and an international arrest warrant by an idiotic Court would turn Putin into a pariah has become a slap on faces of Western countries themselves.
They will all be in the Russian city of Kazan on Tuesday for a meeting of the BRICS bloc of developing economies.
The alliance, does not aim to counterbalance the G7 nations but now the world order will surely not be dictated by them
BRICS initially included Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa but is expanding rapidly. Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia joined in January; Turkey, Azerbaijan and Malaysia formally applied, and a number of others expressed a desire to be members.
Russian officials see the meeting as a massive success. Putin’s foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov said 36 countries confirmed participation, and more than 20 will send heads of state.
Putin will hold around 20 bilateral meetings, Ushakov said, and the summit could turn into “the largest foreign policy event ever held” on Russian soil.
On the side-lines of the summit, Putin also will meet Thursday with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Ushakov said.
It will be the first visit to Russia in more than two years for Guterres, who has repeatedly criticized Russia for the Ukraine conflict. The Kremlin meet clearly demonstrates the standing of Russia shoulder-to-shoulder with its global allies in spite of tensions with the West, as well as the practicality of negotiating deals with global South to hike up Russia’s economy.
For India and China this meet in Russia clearly showcases their World leadership status at par with USA.
For the other participants, it’s a chance to amplify their voices and narratives.”The beauty of BRICS is that it doesn’t put too many obligations on you,” said Alexander Gabuyev, director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center.
“There are not that many strings attached, really, to being part of BRICS. And at the same time, there might be interesting opportunities coming your way, including just having more face time with all of these leaders.
“For Putin, the summit is important personally because it shows the total failure of Western efforts to isolate him, Gabuyev said.
The gathering will demonstrate at home and abroad that “Russia is really an important player that is one of the founding this new group that will end the dominance of a few — that’s the USA and its allies.
The Kremlin will be able to talk to largest of te economic players like India and China about expanding trade and thus nullifying unilateral Western sanctions on Russia.
India is an important market for Russian commodities including sale of reliable weapon systems, while China is where Moscow hopes to source dual-use and various military-related goods, Gabuyev said.
BRICS also wants more countries participating in a payment system project that would be an alternative to the global bank messaging network SWIFT under Western Control, allowing BRICS to trade with partners without worrying about Western sanctions.
After all India too was sanctioned after it had gone ahead and tested its nuclear weapons aspersions its own wish.
Later all came to India begging for trade negotiations.”The Russian idea is that if you create a platform where there is China, Russia, India and Brazil and Saudi Arabia, many countries that are vital partners for the U.S., the U.S. will not dare to go after this platform and sanction it.
It will invite a severe backlash.Russia is also expected to sign a “comprehensive strategic partnership” treaty with Iran, bolstering the increasingly close ties between Moscow and Tehran.
After the start of Ukraine conflict, Iran provided Moscow with hundreds of cheap drones and helped launch their production in Russia.
AThe Iranian drone deliveries, which Moscow and Tehran have denied, have allowed for a constant barrage of long-range drone strikes at Ukraine’s infrastructure.
Iran, in turn, wants sophisticated Russian weapons like long-range air defence systems and fighter jets to help fend off a possible attack by Israel.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov refused to comment when asked whether the treaty will include mutual military assistance.
For China, BRICS is among several international organizations — along with the security-focused Shanghai Cooperation Organization — through which it seeks to promote an alternative to the U.S.-led world order.
Xi pushed for enlarging BRICS, and the Kazan summit will consolidate economic, technological and military ties in the expanded bloc, said Willy Lam, a senior China fellow at the Jamestown Foundation.
Beijing and Moscow also want to see if a new international trading currency could “challenge so-called dollar hegemony,” Lam said.The summit will allow Xi and Putin to flaunt their close relationship.
The two, who announced a “no-limits” partnership weeks before Ukraine conflict in 2022, already have met at least twice this year, in Beijing in May and at a SCO summit in Kazakhstan in July.
“While Putin will want the China-Russia relationship to appear as good as ever, Xi may also want to signal to Western states and others that Beijing officially remains ‘neutral’ in Russia’s war in Ukraine and is not a formal ally of Moscow,” said Eva Seiwert, a foreign policy and security expert with the Mercator Institute for China Studies in Berlin.
“This will be crucial for conveying the image of China as a serious and legitimate peacemaker in the Russia-Ukraine conflict.”An expected Modi-Putin meeting could see some more cementing of their ties.
Western countries want India to be more active in persuading Moscow to end the conflict. Modi has simply refused to condemn Russia while emphasizing a peaceful settlement.
New Delhi considers Moscow a time-tested partner from the Cold War, cooperating on defence, oil, nuclear energy, and space, despite Russia’s closer ties with China.
Their meeting will be the second in months. Modi visited Russia in July, saw President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Ukraine in August and travelled to the U.S. to see President Joe Biden in September.
India will not abandon Russia because of its deep defence ties, the help provided against USA threat by a naval flotilla during 1971 Indo Pak War, and the logic of establishing a multipolar world order.
At the same time, India also builds and develops its relations with the U.S. and the West because that is how the India’s balancing act will help the rest of the World.
India and Brazil view BRICS primarily through an economic lens to promote a more equitable distribution of power in the international system, while “China and Russia see it more as a geopolitical forum,” said Chietigi Bajpayee, who studies South Asia at the Chatham House in London.
India and Brazil also refuse to be “pulled into China’s gravitational orbit,” said Theresa Fallon of the Center for Russia, Europe, Asia Studies.
Another key participant is Turkey, which has applied to join the BRICS group. That comes at a time when the NATO member and European Union candidate is increasingly frustrated with the West.
Turkey’s EU membership talks have stalled since 2016 due to disputes with Cyprus and concerns over human rights.
Turkey’s relations with Washington have been strained over its removal from the F-35 fighter jet program after procuring a much better Russian missile defence system.
Erdogan also has accused the U.S. and other Western allies of alleged “complicity” in Israel’s military actions in Gaza.Membership in BRICS would help Erdogan “strengthen his own hand” at a time when ties with the West are at a low, said Gonul Tol, director of the U.S.-based Middle East Institute’s Turkey program.
Middle powers like Turkey “try to extract more from both camps by being in-between camps, by having one foot in each camp,” he said.
