BRICS Summit – 2023

Blog By: Trupti Thakur

Image Courtesy: Google

BRICS Summit 2023

 

The 2023 BRICS summit is the fifteenth ongoing annual BRICS summit, an international relations conference attended by the heads of state or heads of government of the five member states: Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa also invited the leaders of 67 countries to the summit.

BRICS expansion

Several countries have expressed interest in joining the BRICS group.

At the summit, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates have been invited to join the bloc. Full membership will take effect on 1 January 2024.

Participation of Vladimir Putin

In March 2023, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin for war crimes during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. South Africa is required as an ICC signatory to honour the warrant.

In May 2023, South African government, led by the African National Congress (ANC), granted all invited leaders diplomatic immunity. It was unclear whether this would prevent Putin from being arrested if he attended. According to the Department of International Relations and Cooperation, it was standard practice in South Africa to confer such immunity to attendees of international conferences held in the country

By early June 2023, moving the summit to China was being considered to avoid the issue. In mid-July 2023, Vladimir Putin announced that he would not attend the summit “by mutual agreement” and would instead be sending Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

Nonattendance by Xi Jinping

Despite meeting with host Cyril Ramaphosa earlier in the day and attending the BRICS dinner afterward, Chinese President Xi Jinping unexpectedly did not attend the BRICS business forum where he had been scheduled to speak.

 

BRICS leaders announced on Thursday the admission of six new countries from next year as the club of large and populous emerging economies seeks to reshape the global order.

The BRICS — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — agreed at their annual summit to make Argentina, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates full members from January 1.

“This membership expansion is historic,” said Chinese President Xi Jinping, whose nation is the most powerful in the group of non-Western states that represents a quarter of the world’s economy.

“The expansion is also a new starting point for BRICS cooperation. It will bring new vigour to the BRICS cooperation mechanism and further strengthen the force for world peace and development.”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi later congratulated the new menber, saying, “India has always supported the expansion of BRICS. India has always believed that adding new members will strengthen BRICS as an organisation,” he said.

Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra says, “Prime Minister had interactions with other BRICS leaders. In a conversation with President Xi Jinping of China, Prime Minister highlighted India’s concerns on the unresolved issues along the LAC in the western sector of the India-China border areas. Prime Minister underlined that the maintenance of peace and tranquillity in the border areas and observing and respecting the LAC are essential for the normalisation of the India-China relationship. In this regard, the two leaders agreed to direct their relevant officials to intensify efforts at expeditious disengagement and de-escalation.”

 

Blog By: Trupti Thakur