2023-08-21 07:38:27
South Africa “will not be drawn into a competition between world powers”hammered, Sunday, August 20, President Cyril Ramaphosa, who welcomes the leaders of the emerging countries of the Brics (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) in summit, Tuesday August 22, in a context of divisions on the scene international community, fueled by the war in Ukraine.
Pretoria refuses to condemn Moscow since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, claiming to favor the path of dialogue and attracting criticism from the international community. “Our country is committed to a policy of non-alignment,” recalled the Head of State during an address to the nation transmitted live on television. “We have resisted pressure to align ourselves with either world power or influential blocs of nations”he insisted.
This statement comes two days before the opening in Johannesburg on 15e top of the Brics. The bloc, which produces a quarter of the world’s wealth, claims a multipolar global economic and political balance, particularly with regard to the United States and the European Union.
“Fractured World”
The heads of state of Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, and of China, Xi Jinping, will be present. India will be represented by its Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, and Russia by its Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov. Russian President Vladimir Putin, under an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC) for “war crime” in Ukraine, will participate by videoconference.
In a “world more and more complex and fractured because more and more polarized in competing camps”according to Mr. Ramaphosa, the Brics are considering welcoming new members to extend their influence.
“South Africa supports the enlargement of the composition of the BRICS” to countries “who share the common desire to have a more balanced world order”, underlined the South African president. About forty countries have applied for membership or expressed an interest in joining the group, including Iran, Argentina, Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia.
Apart from the leaders of the five members of the Brics, around fifty heads of state “friends of the Brics” are expected at the summit which is held until Thursday.
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