Reid Standish
As Russian President Vladimir Putin hosts leaders for the 16th annual BRICS summit, he’s looking to signal to the West that Moscow is not isolated on the world stage.
Putin will drive that message home in Kazan from October 22-24 as he positions the BRICS grouping of countries as a counterweight to the West in global politics and trade through a newly expanded version of the bloc sometimes referred to as BRICS+ that includes Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates, as well as previous members Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.
“BRICS once again has fresh air coming into its lungs, in part because the Western-led order and its organizations are experiencing disarray,” Carlos Solar, a senior fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, a London-based think tank, told RFE/RL. “The larger idea is that the world is changing and what happens next for international banking, finance, and law could define which regions of the world will be the most important in the decades to come.”
This year’s summit could also set the stage for further expansion, and Putin has also invited more than two dozen other countries that have applied for or are considering membership in the growing club that includes Azerbaijan, Belarus, Turkey, and Mongolia.
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