BRICS will hold its 15th heads of state and government summit in Johannesburg, South Africa from August 22-24. The summit will be the first in-person meeting of the group since the corona virus pandemic.<\/p>\n
BRICS is a bloc of emerging world economies \u2013 Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa \u2013 aimed at developing trade and economic cooperation among its member nations, reports AlArabia English News service.<\/p>\n
The world leaders expected to attend the summit include South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Brazil\u2019s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.<\/p>\n
Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend the summit, Moscow announced in July. His absence is due to an arrest warrant issued against him by the International Criminal Court (ICC). If he arrives in South Africa, he would be subject to the ICC\u2019s warrant.<\/p>\n
Instead of Putin, Russia\u2019s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov will represent Moscow at the summit. Putin, however, will not miss the meeting. According to Russian state media, he will reportedly participate in the conference via video.<\/p>\n
Russia organized BRICS\u2019s first meeting in 2006, with foreign ministers from Brazil, Russia, India and China in attendance. They discussed the economic bloc\u2019s shared interests and common challenges \u2013 the most prominent being the rising US influence on world order.<\/p>\n
BRICS has also extended invitations to 67 world leaders across Africa, Latin America, Asia and the Caribbean.
\nTwenty dignitaries will attend the summit, including the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, the African Union Commission Moussa Faki Mahamat Chairperson and the President of the BRICS\u2019 New Development Bank. According to Reuters reports, prominent business leaders in the region are also expected to be in attendance.<\/p>\n
Other than developing economic relations and trade infrastructure, one of the most pressing issues on the summit\u2019s agenda is BRICS\u2019 expansion, with several nations from Asia, Africa and Europe vying to join the bloc.<\/p>\n
While the group\u2019s stance on expansion is divided \u2013 China and Russia have embraced it, but India remains opposed to Beijing\u2019s plans \u2013 as many as 40 countries have reportedly shown interest in joining the bloc formally or informally. These include Algeria, Belarus, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Iran, Indonesia, Argentina, Ethiopia and Egypt.<\/p>\n
Another item on the bloc\u2019s agenda that has gained traction and attracted media headlines is the push from BRICS to conduct more cross-border trade in local currencies to reduce the group\u2019s reliance on the US dollar.<\/p>\n
Several reports of a new BRICS\u2019 currency also emerged in the months preceding the summit, with some economic experts claiming that the economic bloc may, in the future, push for de-dollarization \u2013 reducing the US dollar\u2019s dominance in global trade and finance.<\/p>\n
However, according to a Bloomberg report, South Africa\u2019s ambassador to the bloc, Anil Sooklal, said there are no plans to discuss replacing the US dollar.<\/p>\n
According to World Bank statistics, BRICS accounts for more than 40 percent of the world\u2019s population, and the combined GDP is more than $23 trillion \u2013 26 percent of the global economy.<\/p>\n
The acronym \u201cBRICS\u201d was originally coined by Goldman Sachs economist Jim O\u2019Neil in 2001. South Africa was added to the group in 2010 when the bloc extended its membership to another continent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BRICS will hold its 15th heads of state and government summit in Johannesburg, South Africa from August 22-24. The summit will be the first in-person meeting of the group since the corona virus pandemic. BRICS is a bloc of emerging world economies \u2013 Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa \u2013 aimed at developing trade […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":136580,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-136579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-world-news"],"yoast_head":"\n