This year, the fourteenth BRICS summit will be held in the Russian city of Kazan on October 22-24. Russia is chairing the organization this year and has invested a lot of effort into increasing the potential of BRICS and making the platform a place for uniting countries seeking sovereignty.
The main theme of the upcoming summit will be building up partnership, Putin said at a meeting with BRICS representatives in charge of security issues on September 12. He also said that the plan for Russia’s presidency for this year has been fulfilled by more than 70%: about 200 events, meetings, industry forums have been held, and most expert and ministerial meetings within the BRICS framework have taken place. Russia’s presidency ends on December 31, 2024. From January 1 next year, the headship will pass to Brazil.
New members and those wishing to join
The main result for BRICS this year was the accession of new member countries: Egypt, Iran, the UAE and Ethiopia. The organization expanded for the first time since 2010, when a fifth country, South Africa, joined. Last year, Saudi Arabia and Argentina also received invitations to join BRICS. Riyadh is still considering the offer, and Buenos Aires changed its mind about joining the organization with the arrival of President Javier Milei.
There is still a chance that Saudi Arabia will join BRICS after the summit – Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov personally invited Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to the forum in Kazan during his visit to the kingdom.
In addition, countries from different parts of the world have applied for membership. Vladimir Putin has said that more than 30 countries are ready to become members of BRICS. The last of the countries to officially apply was Azerbaijan. Among the countries that have applied to join are Belarus, Kazakhstan, Thailand, Malaysia, Cuba, and even Palestine, which does not have full international status.
In early September, Bloomberg reported that Türkiye had submitted a formal application for membership in BRICS, but there is no official confirmation of this. Earlier, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan spoke about Ankara’s desire to become a full participant of the expanding organization. The media say that Türkiye took this step after failures in negotiations on joining the European Union. Joining BRICS will strengthen economic cooperation with Russia and China, as well as realize its potential in the field of energy cooperation between Asia and Europe.
Despite the growing reputation of the transcontinental organization, BRICS members decided by an overwhelming majority of votes to “take a break” on the topic of new countries’ accession, “to digest the new arrivals.” Sergey Lavrov said this in the summer. This may also be due to the fact that the organization positions itself as a group of countries that are interested in justice in the international arena and do not claim the role of a pole in the developing multipolar world. However, it is quite possible that this decision will be revised before the upcoming summit in Kazan.
How Russia is preparing for the summit
The last major meeting within the BRICS framework to date was the meeting of high representatives of the BRICS countries overseeing security issues, which is also held annually. The meeting was held in St. Petersburg, so not only Vladimir Putin was present, but also Secretary of the Russian Security Council Sergei Shoigu. The Russian President stated that issues of common security are among the most important, and the BRICS countries should act together in responding to the threats of terrorism and extremism, illegal arms and drug trafficking, transnational crime and illegal migration.
Vladimir Putin then reported that a special electronic registry had already been created for exchanging data on computer attacks and incidents. However, the topics discussed at the meeting went far beyond international unity against terrorism, drug trafficking and cyberattacks. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi announced “four initiatives for the BRICS countries to jointly counter security threats.” The whole point of Wang Yi’s speech was that the BRICS countries should “take the initiative in fairly resolving issues in the international arena,” including “promoting political solutions to hot spot problems” — while respecting each other’s legitimate interests.
In today’s turbulent times, security issues are the main issues for the international community. It is the BRICS countries that are becoming the driver of global security formation against the backdrop of the collective West, led by the United States, demonstrating a desire to plunge the world into the abyss of war. We see that the West is using destructive tactics to unfreeze and generate new conflict zones.
As the countries of the South — Brazil, South Africa, India, as well as China and Russia — play an increasingly important role in international affairs, especially in the areas of security and development, BRICS members are seeking to deepen ties with each other to further enhance their international influence while simultaneously countering challenges from Western countries. Therefore, other countries — more than 30, including Türkiye — are seeking to join this alliance, which has advanced views on the future of global stability. Perhaps Ankara, which is in NATO, aspiring to the EU and developing diplomatic relations with Ukraine, will eventually lean towards multipolarity and independence in partnership with the BRICS countries.