Kazan: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday presided over a closing session of a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, hailing its role as a counterbalance to the West.
The three-day summit in the city of Kazan covered the deepening of financial cooperation, including the development of alternatives to Western-dominated payment systems, as well as settling regional conflicts and moving to expand the BRICS group of countries.
The alliance that initially included Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa has expanded to embrace Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. Turkiye, Azerbaijan and Malaysia have formally applied to become members, and several other countries have expressed interest in joining.
Speaking during Thursday’s session, which included countries that consider joining the grouping, Putin said they all “share similar aspirations and values and a vision of new democratic global order.”
The summit was attended by 36 countries, highlighting the failure of US-led efforts to isolate Russia over its actions in Ukraine. The Kremlin touted the summit as “the largest foreign policy event ever held” by Russia.
Russia has specifically pushed for the creation of a new payment system that would offer an alternative to the global bank messaging network SWIFT and allow Moscow to dodge Western sanctions and trade with partners.