The BRICS group is poised to generate a significant portion of global economic growth in the coming years due to its size and relatively rapid development compared to Western nations, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated on Friday.
Putin aims to strengthen BRICS, which now includes Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates in addition to Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, as a powerful counterbalance to Western influence in global politics and trade.
The Kremlin leader will host a BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia, from October 22-24.
“The countries in our association are essentially the drivers of global economic growth. In the foreseeable future, BRICS will generate the main increase in global GDP,” Putin told officials and businessmen at a BRICS business forum in Moscow.
“The economic growth of BRICS members will increasingly depend less on external influence or interference. This is essentially economic sovereignty,” Putin added.
Next week’s summit is presented by Moscow as evidence that Western efforts to isolate Russia over its actions in Ukraine have failed.
Russia seeks to collaborate with other countries to overhaul the global financial system and reduce the dominance of the U.S. dollar.
China, India, and the UAE confirmed on Friday that their leaders would attend the summit in Kazan.
‘Doors are Open’
Putin noted that 30 countries worldwide had expressed interest in cooperating with the BRICS grouping and that next week’s summit would explore options for further expansion.
“The doors are open, we are not barring anyone,” Putin told reporters from BRICS countries.
Putin highlighted several initiatives Russia has proposed ahead of the summit, including a joint cross-border payments system and a reinsurance company.
He mentioned that BRICS members are working on a SWIFT-like financial messaging system immune to Western sanctions and the use of national digital currencies for financing investment projects with high growth potential inside and outside BRICS.
Putin emphasized that Russia’s financial initiatives for the summit involved extensive use of national currencies, while talk of creating a single BRICS currency was “premature.”
He urged the New Development Bank, BRICS’ only functioning multilateral development institution, to invest in technology and infrastructure across the Global South.
“As a development institution, the bank already serves as an alternative to many Western financial mechanisms, and we will naturally continue to develop it,” Putin said. He called for more investment in e-commerce and artificial intelligence.
Putin also promoted Russia’s new transport megaprojects such as the Arctic Sea Route and the North-to-South corridor, linking Russia to the Gulf and Indian Ocean through the Caspian Sea and Iran.
“It is the key to increasing freight transportation between the Eurasian and African continents,” he said.
