2024 BRICS Summit In Kazan 

2024 BRICS Summit In Kazan 

Diego Estevez

Staff Writer 

From October 22 to 24, the BRICS summit was held in Kazan, Russia. According to the Associated Press, 36 nations mostly ranging from the global South came together for this annual gathering, where discussions on topics of financial, political, and strategic importance were held. For context, BRICS is a multi-national alliance that seeks to become a financial and political alternative to the West. 

The name of the organization refers to its original founding members: Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. The initial four countries formed the alliance in 2006, and South Africa was added not long after. Apart from the original five members, several other nations have joined BRICS over the years, with countries like Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates receiving invitations to the coalition in 2023. Turkey, Malaysia, and Azerbaijan have also submitted requests to join BRICS with several other nations showing interest. 

This year’s BRICS summit was held in the southern city of Kazan, Russia, and has gained the attention of several global entities, both those aligned with and unaligned with BRICS. Of particular note, the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres was in attendance at the summit, reports the Associated Press. This revelation sparked outrage from Ukraine, with the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs speaking out against Guterres and claiming his decision was damaging to the credibility of the United Nations. They pointed out that he had not attended a peace summit in Switzerland, backed by Ukraine earlier that year, but as the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry pointed out, the Secretary-General seemed to “accept the invitation to Kazan from the war criminal Putin”. 

At the summit, the majority of the discussion was around a change in the global financial order. As mentioned, one of the main goals of BRICS is to challenge Western financial dominance by reducing reliance on the U.S. dollar in trade and moving away from the SWIFT system, the international messaging network primarily used for trade and the exchange of currency. Moving away from SWIFT is one of Russia’s most sought-after goals since it was kicked from it after its military invasion of Ukraine in 2022. China and Russia rely heavily on anti-Western sentiment to gain support for their projects, and with the United States support of Israel in the current conflict in the Middle East, there is no shortage of ire towards North American democracy in the global South. 

Nations from the global South are also weary of the threat that sanctions could pose to those who oppose the political global order. They fear that countries seen as a threat could be targeted by a wave of weaponized sanctions, as evident by those levied upon Russia in 2022 after it invaded Ukraine. Russia has capitalized on these fears, with The Guardian quoting Putin as saying “The dollar is being used as a weapon.” As Putin continues to spread this message of Western financial aggressiveness he wishes to gain support for an alternative financial system. 

Timothy Ash, an associate fellow in the Russia and Eurasia program at Chatham House, tells Al Jazeera that “Putin is hoping for a big PR win against the Ukraine and the West, trying to send a message that despite that despite the war, and Western sanctions, Russia still has plenty of international partners willing to interact with Russia and trade.” Putin hopes to slither out of the chains of the West’s sanctions to maintain financial flexibility as it continues its war in Ukraine. Progress toward this goal is slowly emerging through BRICS, with members like China working to create an alternative to the SWIFT system, and nations such as Turkey and Brazil shifting their reserves from dollars to gold. These steps are already being taken to move away from the economic norms of the West. 

According to Reuters, Putin has said that more than thirty nations have expressed an interest in becoming a part of BRICS. With current members of BRICS representing 45 percent of the global population and 25 percent of the world’s GDP, their influence only continues to grow. Several members of BRICS and sympathetic nations to the coalition have expressed a common desire to see major changes to the political and economic structure of the world. Foreign Policy points out that these nations would like to see a revision of the workings and procedures of the United Nations and an overall restructuring in multilateral financial institutions such as the World Bank. With the rapid expansion of BRICS and an ever-polarizing and conflict-filled world, the West, which has disregarded BRICS since its inception, may need to consider its increasing power in the global field. 

Image courtesy of Getty Images