Nearly three years after Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine saw Moscow condemned by countries globally, leader Vladimir Putin is staging a summit with more than a dozen world leaders \u2013 in a pointed signal from the autocrat that far from being alone, an emerging coalition of countries stands behind him. <\/p>\n
The three-day BRICS summit, starting Tuesday in the southwestern Russian city of Kazan, is the first meeting of the group of major emerging economies Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa since it expanded earlier this year to include Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Ethiopia, and Iran. <\/p>\n
Leaders expected to attend include China\u2019s Xi Jinping, India\u2019s Narendra Modi, Iran\u2019s Masoud Pezeshkian, South Africa\u2019s Cyril Ramaphosa as well as those from outside the club, like Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was expected to join but canceled his trip after suffering an injury at home. <\/p>\n
Set to be by far the largest international gathering the Russian president has hosted since the start of the war in February 2022, the gathering of BRICS and other countries this week spotlights a growing convergence of nations who hope to see a shift in the global balance of power and \u2013 in the case of some, like Moscow, Beijing and Tehran \u2013 directly counter the United States-led West. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s this latter message that Putin \u2013 and close partner and most powerful BRICS country leader Xi \u2013 will project in the coming days: it\u2019s the West that stands isolated in the world with its sanctions and alliances, while a \u201cglobal majority\u201d of countries support their bid to challenge American global leadership. <\/p>\n
In remarks to reporters Friday, Putin hailed the growing economic and political clout of BRICS countries as an \u201cundeniable fact\u201d and said that if BRICS and interested countries work together, they \u201cwill be a substantial element of the new world order\u201d \u2013 though he denied the group was an \u201canti-Western alliance.\u201d <\/p>\n
Putin\u2019s messaging this week will be all the more poignant as the meeting comes just days ahead of the US elections, where a potential victory for former President Donald Trump could see the US shift its staunch support of Ukraine and strain Washington\u2019s ties with its traditional allies more broadly. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis BRICS summit is really a gift (for Putin),\u201d said Alex Gabuev, director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center in Berlin. \u201cThe message will be: how can you talk about Russia\u2019s global isolation when (all these) leaders \u2026 are coming to Kazan.\u201d <\/p>\n
Russia wants to portray BRICS \u201cas the spearhead, the new organization that leads us all as a global community to a more just order,\u201d Gabuev said. <\/p>\n
But despite Russia\u2019s sweeping rhetoric, the leaders meeting in Kazan have a wide range of viewpoints and interests \u2013 a reality of BRICS that observers say limits their ability to send a unified message \u2013 especially the kind Putin may desire. <\/p>\n
The Russian-hosted gathering poses a sharp contrast to last year\u2019s BRICS summit in Johannesburg, when Putin participated from the other side of a video screen \u2013 unable to attend in person due to an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes over Ukraine. <\/p>\n
This year, the Russian president is at the helm of the first summit since the organization nearly doubled in size \u2013 and the gathering is playing out before a very different global landscape. <\/p>\n
While BRICS is primarily <\/strong>geared toward economic collaboration, its meeting last year took place in the shadow of the war in Ukraine. Now, even as that war rages on, the expanding conflict in the Middle East, where Israel is fighting Iran\u2019s proxies, is also likely to dominate leaders\u2019 conversations. <\/p>\n Putin last week confirmed that Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas would join the event. The Russian leader and his officials will likely use the conflict \u2013 and the anger across the Global South toward the US and its support for Israel \u2013 to press his argument for a new world order without the US at the helm, observers say. <\/p>\n China and Russia have both called for a ceasefire in the spiraling conflict and criticized Israel\u2019s actions, while the US has endorsed Israel\u2019s right to retaliate against militant groups Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. <\/p>\n Many attending the summit see the conflict in the Middle East \u201cas a prime example of why this particular grouping of countries should have more influence,\u201d said Jonathan Fulton, an Abu Dhabi-based senior non-resident fellow at the Atlantic Council. However, he said, countries are \u201cusing it mostly as a rhetorical point to criticize things they don\u2019t like,\u201d rather than showing interest in leading its resolution. <\/p>\n Observers will also be watching whether China and Brazil use the gathering as a platform to play up their joint six-point peace proposal on the war in Ukraine, as they did at last month\u2019s meeting of the United Nations General Assembly. Then, Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky slammed the effort, saying such plans would help Moscow, while warning Beijing and Brasilia: \u201cyou will not boost your power at Ukraine\u2019s expense.\u201d <\/p>\n Zelensky\u2019s own challenges presenting his \u201cvictory plan\u201d to end the war and the impending US elections mean China now has \u201ca tremendous opportunity to beat the drum of its own format (on Ukraine) without sparing too much leverage,\u201d according to Gabuev in Berlin. <\/p>\n The gathering in Kazan also gives Putin ample opportunity for one-on-one facetime with his fellow BRICS leaders and other friendly dignitaries in attendance. <\/p>\n Leaders over the next few days are expected to discuss how to advance on-going efforts to settle payments outside the US dollar-denominated system using BRICS currencies and banking networks, a system that could have economic benefits, but also helps member countries like Russia circumnavigate Western sanctions. The countries are also likely to look for ways to boost economic, technological and financial cooperation across a range of areas from energy to sharing satellite data. <\/p>\n At the same time, however, they\u2019ll be grappling with the divisions and differing agendas between countries within the group, which observers say limit how much BRICS can achieve. <\/p>\n That\u2019s nothing new for the group, which held its first summit of Brazil, Russia, India and China in 2009 as a convergence of key emerging markets before expanding the following year to include South Africa. In 2015, BRICS launched its New Development Bank, seen as an alternative or supplement to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. <\/p>\n Loosely united by a shared interest in reforming the international system to ensure their voices were better represented, BRICS from its start has incorporated countries with deep differences in political and economic systems \u2013 as well as other frictions. <\/p>\n India and China, for example, have a long-simmering border conflict, but make up two key pillars of the club. Their divisions have become even more prominent in recent years as China-US have become increasingly fraught, while India and the US have become closer partners. <\/p>\n Today, even as BRICS has again expanded \u2013 and the Kremlin says more than 30 additional countries are interested in joining or cooperating with it \u2013 deepening geopolitical fault lines further complicate BRICS\u2019 identity and direction, observers say. <\/p>\n \u201c(China and Russia have) essentially tried to shift the group from the sense of (BRICS) being emerging economies to potentially being some sort of an expression of angst with regard to Western dominance,\u201d said Manoj Kewalramani, who heads Indo-Pacific studies at the Takshashila Institution research center in the Indian city of Bangalore. <\/p>\n And new or aspiring members may not be wanting to choose between this vision or the West. Instead, they are looking to grow their economies and \u201cengage non-ideologically and pragmatically,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Nearly three years after Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine saw Moscow condemned by countries globally, leader Vladimir Putin is staging a summit with more than a dozen world leaders \u2013 in a pointed signal from the autocrat that far from being alone, an emerging coalition of countries stands behind him. 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