🇷🇺🇧🇷🇮🇳🇨🇳🇿🇦 On March 22, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met with the Moscow-accredited ambassadors from the #BRICS countries at a working breakfast.

🤝 The participants enthusiastically exchanged views on developing and strengthening their strategic partnership in the association. They reaffirmed their invariable interest in promoting the five-way dialogue at key international venues and other associations.

The participants reviewed current international issues with an emphasis on the situation in #Ukraine and around it. Sergey Lavrov presented a thorough analysis of the reasons for the Ukraine conflict and gave detailed explanations on the issues linked with ensuring security of civilians, including foreigners, organising humanitarian corridors and granting aid to refugees and other people who need it.

☝️ He stressed that the unprecedented economic war unleashed against #Russia through sanctions is a crude violation of key international legal standards.

📹 President Putin's video address to the Participants in the #BRICS Business Forum

Read in full

Key points:

🔹 Our cooperation is based on the principles of equality, partner support, and respect for each other's interests. And that is what lies at the core of our Association's forward-looking strategic course – the course that reflects the aspirations of most of the world’s community, the so-called global majority.

🔹 Over the last decade, mutual investments among the BRICS countries have increased six-fold. Their overall investments in global economy have doubled, and their total exports have reached 20 percent of the world exports.

🔹 The objective and irreversible process of the de-dollarization of our economic ties is gaining pace. We are working to fine-tune effective mechanisms for mutual settlements and monetary and financial control.

🔹 Russia stands for greater cooperation within BRICS as regards reliable and uninterrupted supplies of energy and food resources to the world markets. We are consistently increasing supplies of fuel, agricultural products and fertilizers to countries in the Global South, making a significant contribution to strengthening global food and energy security, addressing acute humanitarian issues and fighting hunger and poverty in countries in need.

🔹 Our country has the capacity to replace Ukrainian grain, both commercially and as free aid to needy countries, especially since our harvest is again expected to be perfect this year. As a first step, we have decided to gratuitously provide six African countries with 25‑50 thousand tonnes of grain each with free delivery of these cargoes.

🔹 I am confident that the BRICS Business Forum and Business Council will continue their creative work aimed at expanding contacts between the business circles of the Group of Five countries and jointly implementing new mutually beneficial projects.

🎙 Address by Russia's President Vladimir Putin on the start of Russia's BRICS Chairmanship

💬 On January 1, Russia was passed the baton of the #BRICS chairmanship, an association which, according to the decision adopted by the 15th BRICS Summit in August 2022, now includes 10 countries.

Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates joined BRICS as new full members which is a strong indication of the growing authority of the association and its role in international affairs.

BRICS is attracting an ever increasing number of supporters and like-minded countries that share its underlying principles, namely, sovereign equality, respect for the chosen path of development, mutual consideration of interests, openness, consensus, the aspiration to form a multipolar international order and a fair global financial and trade system, and pursuit of collective solutions to top challenges of our time.

The Russian 2024 BRICS Chairmanship under the motto Strengthening Multilateralism for Equitable Global Development and Security will act precisely in this manner and focus on positive and constructive cooperation with all countries concerned.

🔸 We will spare no effort to <...> facilitate the harmonious integration of new participants in all formats of its activities.

🔸 We will start working on the modalities of a new category of BRICS partner country.

🔸 Russia will continue to promote all aspects of the BRICS partnership in three key areas: politics and security, economy and finance, and cultural and humanitarian contacts.

🔸 Our priorities include promoting cooperation in science, high technology, healthcare, environmental protection, culture, sports, youth exchanges, and civil society.

🔸 In total, over 200 events of different levels and types will be held in many Russian cities as part of the chairmanship.

Read in full

🎙 Extrait du discours du Ministre russe des Affaires étrangères Sergueï Lavrov lors de la réunion du Conseil des affaires sur les questions #BRICS (Moscou, 31 mai 2024):
⠀
💬 Nous avons convenu de concentrer notre réunion d'aujourd'hui sur une question des plus urgentes - l'interaction au sein de l'association des BRICS.
⠀
Les BRICS sont un format interétatique unique où les représentants de divers pays de différentes religions, civilisations et cultures communiquent, travaillent et élaborent des décisions communes, qui sont ensuite mises en œuvre. Tout cela se fait sur la base de l'égalité, du respect mutuel, de l'ouverture et de la recherche d'un équilibre des intérêts.
⠀
L'objectif de la coopération est compréhensible: assurer la création de conditions favorables à la croissance économique des pays membres, résoudre les problèmes sociaux et développer le potentiel humain innovant. Il ne fait aucun doute que les intérêts de tous les pays membres coïncident en la matière et répondent aux espoirs d'autres pays de la Majorité mondiale, ce qui a été confirmé par le doublement du nombre de membres de notre association en 2023 (de cinq à dix). Cela est également confirmé par le fait que plus de 30 États ont demandé à se rapprocher des BRICS sous une forme ou une autre.
⠀
<...>
⠀
Le sommet des BRICS est prévu pour octobre 2024 à Kazan. Dès la semaine prochaine, nous organiserons une réunion du Conseil des ministres des affaires étrangères des BRICS à Nijni Novgorod, à laquelle participeront à la fois des membres à part entière et des pays invités représentant diverses entités d'intégration de la majorité mondiale ainsi que d'autres partenaires du format BRICS+.
⠀
<...>
⠀
☝️ Nous allons accorder une attention prioritaire au renforcement des contacts avec les milieux d'affaires. C'est parce que ces questions ne peuvent tout simplement pas être résolues efficacement sans vous.
⠀
Nous encouragerons un dialogue direct entre les entrepreneurs au sein des BRICS. Le Conseil des entreprises et l'Alliance des femmes d'affaires, créés à l'initiative de la Russie, sont déjà opérationnels.
⠀
#BRICS2024

⚡️ The Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, on the eve of the International Day of Parliamentarism celebrated annually on 30 June in accordance with United Nations General Assembly resolution A/Res/72/278 adopted on 22 May 2018, is calling on international parliamentary organizations and parliaments of the world to work together towards strengthening peaceful and mutually beneficial relations among peoples and nations.

Senators of the Russian Federation note that shaping a new, more just multipolar world order is an objective process. Attempts by the collective West to impose on the international community a unipolar world order based on the self-interested diktat of Washington and a group of its satellites are expectedly failing. In these conditions, parliamentary diplomacy becomes increasingly important in establishing a constructive dialogue among nations.

The Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation emphasizes that the Inter-Parliamentary Union has a special role to play in making the joint work of legislators from different countries more effective, especially on countering new challenges and threats faced by humanity.

🤝 The senators of the Russian Federation are developing productive cooperation with colleagues from other countries within the Interparliamentary Assembly of Member Nations of the Commonwealth of Independent States, Parliamentary Assembly of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, Parliamentary Assembly of the Union of Belarus and Russia, Asian Parliamentary Assembly and Asia-Pacific Parliamentary Forum.

The Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation strongly condemns the openly destructive attempts of the countries of the collective West to block the work of the Russian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE PA).

<...>

☝️ The Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation notes the importance of further developing direct contacts with the Arab Parliament, Parliament of the Latin American and Caribbean States, Parliament of the South American Common Market, Central American Parliament, as well as with the Arab Inter Parliamentary Union, African Parliamentary Union, Pan African Parliament, Parliamentary Union of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation Member States, and Inter-Parliamentary Assembly of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

The senators of the Russian Federation express hope that during the upcoming 10th BRICS Parliamentary Forum in St. Petersburg in July 2024, legislators from the #BRICS member countries meeting in an expanded format for the first time, will contribute to a more efficient and democratic international relations system, preventing unilateral restrictive measures against sovereign states, and strengthening ties with developing countries and their integration associations.

Read in full

✍️ Article 'BRICS and ASEAN: Focus on Food Security and Global Cooperation' by the Ambassador of Russia to Singapore Nikolay Kudashev (August 27, 2024)

🗓 The ASEAN+BRICS Roundtable on Sustainable Trade for Global Food Security, hosted by the Diplomatic Network (Asia) on August 14, 2024, underscored the increasing focus within Southeast Asia and Singapore on fostering collaboration with #BRICS states and their institutional frameworks.

The deliberations centered on refining global governance and sustainable trade practices to enhance and safeguard food security, ensuring the fulfillment of the fundamental human right to adequate nutrition in the contemporary world.

The roundtable convened prominent business leaders alongside ambassadors from BRICS and ASEAN member states, engaging in three interactive panels dedicated to formulating global strategies for sustainable trade and food security.

<...>

The event, the Russian Embassy in Singapore took part in, emphasized the pivotal role that BRICS nations play in fortifying food security and ensuring the resilience of supply chains. These countries possess more than 30% of the world’s agricultural land and occupy a prominent position in the global agricultural market, thanks to the diverse environmental, demographic, and socio-economic conditions within their borders, which foster a wide range of agricultural products.

In 2022, Russia initiated the adoption of the BRICS Strategy on Food Security Cooperation. Looking ahead, BRICS anticipates the implementation of a new four-year plan for Agricultural Cooperation under Brazil’s chairmanship in the coming year. Additionally, Russia has proposed the establishment of a grain trading platform within BRICS — the BRICS Grain Exchange — as a critical mechanism for bolstering food security.

<...>

The foundation of BRICS cooperation is built on principles of equality, mutual respect, openness, and the pursuit of a balanced alignment of interests.

The cooperation within BRICS is anchored on three primary pillars:

• policy and security,
• economy and finance,
• people-to-people and cultural exchanges.

<...>

📈 BRICS countries now constitute 45% of the world’s population (3.6 billion people), account for over 40% of global oil production, and generate approximately a quarter of the world’s goods exports.

According to the International Monetary Fund’s estimates from last year, the combined GDP of the five founding BRICS nations reached $58.9 trillion, representing 33% of global GDP. This figure surpasses the GDP of the G7 by $5 trillion, as the G7 accounts for only 30% of the global GDP.

<...>

As of January 1, 2024, Russia, having prioritized BRICS cooperation within its long-term foreign policy framework, assumed the BRICS chairmanship under the banner of “Strengthening Multilateralism for Equitable Global Development and Security.” This approach aligns with Russia’s fundamental national interests and complements its strategic objective of fostering a fair multipolar world order, while ensuring equitable opportunities for all nations to develop.

🇷🇺 In the context of the Russian chairmanship, over 200 events of varying scales and formats are scheduled across multiple cities in Russia.

The BRICS Foreign Ministers' Meeting held in Nizhny Novgorod in June 2024 addressed a broad spectrum of issues, ranging from trade, economic development, and climate change to contemporary geopolitical conflicts, including those in the Middle East, Africa, and concerns in Afghanistan and Haiti.

<...>

The BRICS Summit, scheduled to take place in Kazan on October 22-24, will serve as the cornerstone event of Russia’s BRICS presidency. We anticipate that representatives from all nations interested in advancing cooperation within BRICS will accord significant attention to this summit. Undoubtedly, it is poised to make a substantial contribution to the discourse on addressing the challenges and threats of our time, while also devising collective solutions to global issues and development objectives.

Read in full

#BRICS2024

🎙 Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's interview to the newspaper "Arguments and Facts" (October 21, 2024)

Key Points:

#BRICS

• BRICS epitomises the shifts that have long been underway in the global economy. New centres of economic growth are emerging, and alongside them comes financial influence, which in turn brings political influence.

• BRICS is a consortium where no single nation leads or is led, devoid of the bureaucratic machinery akin to that observed in Brussels, where EU officials impose decisions that contravene the will and interests of several member states, failing to align with the aspirations of voters across many countries.

• BRICS does not stand in opposition to any entity, nor does it orchestrate operations or initiate projects. BRICS is committed to enhancing the combined potential of its nations and devising collaborative strategies for harnessing these potentials for mutual benefit.

• What makes BRICS and other World Majority or Global East associations that do not include Western countries stand out, is that they are not created for the purpose of struggling or fighting with anyone. They are established to collectively benefit from their competitive advantages such as geographical location, shared history, cultural and humanitarian proximity <...>.

#USA

• The US is unwilling to relinquish the reins of power that they have held since World War II through the Bretton Woods institutions and through the role assigned to the US dollar in the international monetary system, even after free exchange of US dollars for gold had been cancelled.

• The key goal of the US ruling class is to make sure no one can undermine their dominance. This goal is illusory. The historical process is objectively heading in a different direction, and this has to be reckoned with.

• We are ready to interact with any administration voted in by the American people, but only if such a dialogue is mutually respectful, and both parties listen and hear what the other party has to say.

#Ukraine

• On multiple occasions, European leaders from Brussels have repeatedly made it clear that they must support Ukraine for as long as it takes, because Ukraine is fighting for the European values.

• It turns out that European leaders are still willing to uphold Nazi values, which is why denazification is not just a motto, but an objective of utmost importance.

#UN

• The United Nations is not a valiant knight expected to “charge in and extinguish the fire” upon witnessing injustice. The UN is an assembly of its member states, each with established rules, including the Security Council's veto rights. The United States has effectively exercised this right five times over the past year, blocking a resolution proposed by several countries, including Russia, demanding an immediate ceasefire. <...> Presently, the United States is taking every measure to avoid antagonising Israel.

• Nations such as India, Brazil, and African representatives should have long held permanent seats on the Security Council. This is essential to ensure representation of the World Majority.

#Finland #Sweden #NATO

• The zeal that the Finns and Swedes are showing in NATO, advocating for defeating Russia, is not only rooted in their historical instincts. They are also eager to show their Big Brothers in the North Atlantic Alliance that they have brought added value <...>.

• I am confident that reasonable people in Europe, who have learned the lessons taught by history, see this too, including in Finland and Sweden.

#Europe

• To reiterate, the so-called right-wing conservatives are loyal to their countries and their people. We will engage with anyone who approaches us with a proposal to talk, to seek common ground, and to think about how we can jointly make the lives of our citizens better.

#EurasianSecurity

• We suggest discussing the Eurasian continent-wide security architecture, emphasising the fact that its doors will be open to everyone, including countries from the West of the Eurasian continent.

Read in full (Telegraph)