XI AND MODI ATTENDING SUMMIT, ILLNESS KEEPS LULA AWAY
Putin has praised both Sheikh Mohammed and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who will not attend the summit in Kazan, for their mediation efforts over Ukraine.
“I assure you that we will continue to work in this direction,” Sheikh Mohammed told Putin. “We are ready to make any efforts to resolve crises and in the interests of peace, in the interests of both sides.”
Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend, though Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva cancelled his trip following medical advice to temporarily avoid long-haul flights after a head injury at home that caused a minor brain haemorrhage.
The acronym BRIC was coined in 2001 by then-Goldman Sachs chief economist Jim O’Neill in a research paper that underlined the massive growth potential of Brazil, Russia, India and China this century.
Russia, India and China began to meet more formally, eventually adding Brazil, then South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates. Saudi Arabia has yet to formally join.
BRICS’ share of global GDP is forecast to rise to 37 per cent by the end of this decade while the share accounted for by the Group of Seven major Western economies will decline to about 28 per cent from 30 per cent this year, according to data from the International Monetary Fund.
Russia is seeking to convince BRICS countries to build an alternative platform for international payments that would be immune to Western sanctions. But divisions abound inside BRICS. China and India, the top purchasers of Russian oil, have difficult relations, while there is little love lost between Arab nations and Iran.
