2023-08-17 13:30:00
South Africa, currently holding the BRICS presidency, is preparing to host the XV BRICS Summit in Johannesburg from August 22 to 24 2023, under the theme “BRICS and Africa: partnership for mutually accelerated growth, sustainable development and inclusive multilateralism”.
The importance of the high-profile event that will bring together the world’s leading developing economies, known as the BRICS, an acronym for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The first in-person BRICS summit since the COVID-19 pandemic comes as member states continue to expand their political influence and increase their share of global GDP, surpassing at the G7. Furthermore, the rise of the BRICS has demonstrated the possibility of a shift in power from the global north to the south amid the decline of the United States as a unipolar superpower.
Sputnik analyzes who is participating in the BRICS summit, who has been invited and which countries are currently aspiring to join the bloc.
The heads of state or heads of government of the five member states will attend the Summit. Consequently, on the list are the president of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosawho assumed the presidency of the group in January, the Chinese leader, Xi Jinpingthe Brazilian head of state, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silvaand the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi. The Russian President, Vladimir Putinwill not attend in person, but is expected to participate in the Summit via video conference.
Putin is going to deliver his speech online on August 23, reports Anil Sooklal, the South African BRICS envoy. The Russian delegation will be headed by the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov.
According to the South African Foreign Minister, Naledi Pandorthe South African president has invited, with the consensus of his BRICS counterparts, to “67 leaders from Africa and the global south to attend the BRICS-Africa and BRICS Plus outreach talks.” The leaders cover all continents and regions of the global south, he added.
No Western leader has been invited. In early 2023, the head of French diplomacy, Catherine Colonna, confirmed that President Emmanuel Macron was interested in going to Johannesburg as an observer to attend the summit. Macron’s proposal was met with a mixed reaction among the BRICS members. Russia argued that the participation of the French president would be inappropriate due to Paris’s hostile policy towards Moscow. In early August, it was officially announced that Emmanuel Macron would not be invited to the summit in Johannesburg.
On the first day of the summit, August 22, there will be a business forum in which the heads of states will address the participants in the final session in the evening. After that, the BRICS leaders will meet in a closed session. “The agenda is open, they will be able to exchange opinions on any topic they deem necessary,” Anil Sooklal clarified.
The events on August 23 will be divided into two sessions. The first, behind closed doors, will supposedly last an hour and a half, and the second, in an open session, apparently for about two hours. During the first session, the association leaders, along with ten representatives from each delegation, will discuss geopoliticssubjects of security, finance y economy. The open session will include, in particular, representatives of the Business Council, the Women’s Business Alliance and the BRICS New Development Bank, with reports presented by these organizations. At the end of the summit, the heads of the member states will adopt a final statementwhich its representatives have already started working on, Sooklal added.
The BRICS enlargement is high on the agenda and will be discussed at the group’s next summit in South Africa, Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov stressed. More than 40 countries have expressed their desire to join the BRICS, and 23 of them have officially done so, Pandor said. Among those who have officially applied are Argentina, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Senegal , Algeria, Ethiopia, Iran and Indonesia. “The list of countries is long,” Sooklal concluded.
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