The BRICS in search of influence, Ukraine in the backdrop of their summit
The summit of emerging countries grouped under the acronym BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) opened on Tuesday in Johannesburg with, at the center of the discussions, the enlargement of the bloc which wants to extend its political influence and world economy, with the Ukrainian conflict as a backdrop.
About forty nations have applied for membership or expressed an interest in joining the “club of five”, which produces a quarter of the world’s wealth and brings together 42% of the world’s population. Iran, Argentina, Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia are among the contenders.
“It shows that the BRICS family is growing in importance, stature and influence in the world”, underlined the South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa, at the end of the first day of the summit. The five countries are now “powerful engines of global growth”he pointed out.
The bloc countries contest the political and economic supremacy of the United States and the European Union, a claim exacerbated by the war in Ukraine. “We are only saying that we exist, we are organizing ourselves and we want to sit at the negotiating table on an equal footing with the European Union, the United States”Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said earlier today in a message posted on social media.
South Africa, China and India have never condemned the Russian offensive, and Brazil has refused to send arms to Ukraine or impose sanctions on Russia. Cyril Ramaphosa, the President of South Africa, forcefully reaffirmed the position “unaligned” of Pretoria, saying that South Africa “will not be drawn into a competition between world powers”.
In the morning, a handful of anti-Russian demonstrators brandished, near the conference center hosting the summit, Ukrainian flags and placards bearing the slogan “Sergei Lavrov, go home. » Russia is represented in Johannesburg by its foreign minister. Vladimir Putin, under an international arrest warrant, broadcast a pre-recorded video during the summit. According to journalists stationed at the Kremlin, the speech was dubbed, in Russian however, and it was a voice other than that of Vladimir Putin which was broadcast. The reasons for this doubling are unknown.