What does 2024 BRICS Summit mean for middle-power South Africa?
Putin is hosting around 20 world leaders, including superpower China's Xi Jinping, Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India and Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
President Cyril Ramaphosa, China's Xi Jingping and Russia's Vladimit Putin attend the welcome ceremony for heads of state of BRICS member countries hosted by Vladimir Putin held at Kazan City Hall in the Russian Federation on 22 October 2024. Picture: @PresidencyZA/X
Lester Kiewit speaks to Sanusha Naidu, a senior research fellow at the Institute for Global Dialogue, about what the current BRICS 2024 Summit in Kazan, Russia means for South Africa, and for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Listen below.
President Cyril Ramaphosa is in Russia for the latest BRICS summit, hosted by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Putin is hosting around 20 world leaders - including Ramaphosa, China's Xi Jinping, Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India and Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The gathering is the largest diplomatic event in Russia since it invaded Ukraine in February 2022 and comes after Putin scrapped plans to attend last year's summit in South Africa after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for him.
So, is his no-show at the last gathering likely to be a topic of discussion over the next three days?
"I wouldn't think it would have been something that they would have specifically spoken about. I think it would have been crafted within the context of the global government's agenda, the reform of the international system and, more importantly, what is the rules-based system looking like?"
- Sanusha Naidu, Institute for Global Dialogue
On Tuesday, Ramaphosa urged an end to the Russia-Ukraine war, and praised Moscow as a 'valued ally' and friend in his meeting with Putin.
"We continue to see Russia as a valued ally, as a valued friend, who supported us right from the beginning: from the days of our struggle against Apartheid, right through to now."
The summit is also the start of a new chapter for BRICS following the addition of several new members including Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, and the United Arab Emirates.
The expansion marks a significant shift in the bloc's global influence, enhancing BRICS' collective bargaining power in geopolitics.
In 2023, BRICS also extended invitations to Saudi Arabia, which has yet to join formally, and to Argentina, which declined the invitation.
"Saudi Arabia, as much as it's been invited to all the BRICS events... it hasn't formally decided... so it's sitting their on the fence as an observer."
- Sanusha Naidu, Institute for Global Dialogue
The bloc was first established in 2006. South Africa joined in 2009.
Its purpose is to redefine global power dynamics, challenging the West's long-held economic and political monopoly.
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