Russian President: BRICS works for “global majority”‎

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in recorded remarks before the BRICS summit held in South Africa today, Tuesday, that the BRICS group is on its way to meeting the aspirations of most of the world’s population.

According to “Reuters”, he added, “We cooperate on the basis of the principles of equality, support for partnership and respect for each other’s interests, and this is the essence of the strategic path of our group and (it is a path) directed towards the future, and it is the path that meets the aspirations of the largest part of the global community .. What is it?” It is called the global majority.”

Members of the BRICS grouping, which includes Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, represent more than 40 percent of the world’s population. The summit is expected to discuss adding new members, but Putin did not address this issue

Putin was unable to attend the summit due to an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court against him in March on charges of war crimes in Ukraine.

Russia rejected the accusations, describing them as outrageous, and said that this step has no legal significance because it is not a member of the International Criminal Court.

But South Africa is among the member states of the court, which means that it would have had to arrest him if he had traveled there

Putin said that the summit will discuss in detail trade exchange between member states using local currencies, not the dollar, a step in which the new development bank of the BRICS group will play a major role.

“Our goal of eliminating the dollar in our economic relations is gaining momentum,” he added

The importance of the BRICS group to Russia is increasing at a time when its economy is facing Western sanctions because of the war in Ukraine, so Moscow is looking forward to building new diplomatic and trade relations with Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Putin said that Russia is seeking to develop two major projects in particular, which are a northern sea route that includes new ports, fuel stations and a large fleet of icebreakers, and another corridor that connects Russian ports with marine stations in the Gulf and the Indian Ocean.

He added that Russia would remain a reliable food supplier to Africa and was currently finalizing talks that would provide free grain to a group of African countries, as promised at a summit in St. Petersburg last month.

This promise came after Russia withdrew from an agreement that allowed Ukraine to export grain from its ports on the Black Sea, and Moscow bombed Ukrainian ports and grain stores, prompting Kiev and the West to accuse it of using food as a weapon in war.