On the eve of the BRICS Summit, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stressed that there was a troika as RIC-Russia-India-China. According to him, even though the group hasn’t met for some time because of some circumstances, it is nevertheless an “independent mechanism.”
These comments were given by Lavrov to the Moscow-based news agency Argumenty I Fakty, according to Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be paying a visit to Russia from October 22-23, 2024. At the invitation of President Vladimir Putin. PM Modi will participate in the 16th BRICS Summit in Kazan during the visit. This would be Modi’s second trip to Russia this year, after his bilateral trip in July.
According to Lavrov, BRICS reflects the new world economic paradigms, as new poles of economic growth emerge. Economic growth is followed by financial and political influence. For several decades, the epicenter of global development has progressively shifted from the Euro-Atlantic region to the Eurasian and Asia-Pacific one. Thus, economists of the Western Bank “listed the world’s fastest-growing economies.” This purely statistical-based study served as a basis for the term “BRICS.”
Lavrov went on to say that BRICS as an initiative started taking shape thanks to the efforts of Yevgeny Primakov in the 1990s. “He came up with a suggestion for regular meetings within the framework of the RIC troika: Russia, India, China. And though recently it did not meet as pandemic was an element, plus other reasons -it remains an important independent mechanism.”
Further, Lavrov proceeded with the chronology of BRICS expansion, mentioning the addition of Brazil. After which it became BRIC, and later South Africa joined the group, thereby completing BRICS. Later on, BRICS started taking care of the needs of the group members. The interest in the group goes up. BRICS is a consortium wherein there is no single nation-leading or being led.
He further emphasized how BRICS works to enhance the collective potential of its members through collaborative strategies. Experts in different fields, such as economics, trade, and technology, would normally meet to disseminate knowledge. And come up with projects beneficial to all member countries.
Looking ahead, Lavrov said BRICS was already working on a new status of partner countries. With rights almost equal to permanent membership. He promised to present this proposition at the BRICS leaders summit in Kazan.
Finally, Lavrov commended BRICS for not forming to fight others but for harnessing their collective strengths for mutual benefit. He supplemented this by saying that BRICS stands out among other associations from the Global East, where the focus of diplomacy is on mutual benefits and not on contesting Western countries.
ANI
