BRICS Summit underway, amid considerations for expansion.

The 15^th annual BRICS summit, an international relations conference attended by the five member states: Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, commenced today, Tuesday, August 22^nd.

BRICS is a bloc of “emerging world economics” with the goal of developing trade and economic cooperation amongst its members. They represent 23 percent of the world’s gross domestic product and 42 percent of the world’s population.

Where and who is attending

This year’s summit is being held in Johannesburg, South Africa, and is the first in-person meeting since the covid pandemic. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Brazil President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will all be in attendance.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend due to an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) who would have been expected to be detained if he arrived in. the country. Instead, Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov will take his place. This is despite the fact that South Africa had granted diplomatic immunity to all attendees.

They have also extended invitations to 67 world leaders across Africa, South America, Asia, and the Caribbean. This is especially important this year as one of the key issues to be discussed is the bloc’s expansion. More than 40 countries have reportedly shown interest in joining the bloc, such as Algeria, Belarus, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Iran, Indonesia, Argentina, Ethiopia, and Egypt. Both China and Russia have supported BRICS expansion however as of now India is still opposed to the idea

BRICS has also extended invitations to 69 world leaders across Africa, Latin America, Asia and the Caribbean. Twenty international dignitaries will also be there including UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, African Union Commissioner Moussa Faki Mahamat and the President of the BRICS’ New Development Bank.

Key Issues

Other priorities of this year’s conference are developing economic relations and trade infrastructure. Another one is the push for BRICS to conduct more cross-border trade in local currencies to reduce the group’s reliance on the US dollar. This could also reduce the dollar’s dominance in global trade and finance.

However, according to a Bloomberg report, South Africa’s ambassador to the bloc, Anil Sooklal, said that there are no plans to discuss replacing the dollar. Several commentators also believe that China and Russia will also call for more cooperation and support among the global south by using the rising discontent over frustrations of Western dominance of global institutions.

The main event is scheduled for Wednesday, August 23rd with closing remarks on Thursday, August 24^th.