16th BRICS Summit is taking place in Kazan

Belarusian delegation is taking part in this important international event

The President of Belarus, Aleksandr Lukashenko, will pay a working visit to Kazan today to participate in the meeting of the 16th BRICS summit in the BRICS Plus/Outreach format

The leaders of the countries will discuss topical international issues, the strengthening of co-operation in the BRICS format as one of the foundations of multilateralism, the enhancement of cohesion of the world majority, and the early resolution of the existing regional conflicts.
A broad programme of international contacts is planned for the Belarusian Head of State. In total, the forum will bring together representatives of the leadership of more than 40 states and international organisations.
New members of the association are taking part in the summit for the first time. Since January 1st, 2024, Egypt, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Ethiopia have become full-fledged members of the BRICS in addition to Brazil, India, China, Russia and South Africa.
For the first time, the group’s summit is being held in the format of ten, taking into account the five new participants accepted in 2023. In addition to the BRICS’ ten member-states, other representatives of the countries of the Global South and East, interested in co-operation with the association, have arrived in Kazan.
The BRICS Summit is being chaired by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The interaction within the BRICS is based on three key pillars — politics and security, economy and finance, culture and humanitarian ties. The range of topics discussed at the meetings covers almost all aspects of global development, including trade, regional security, combating crime and corruption, macroeconomic policy, energy, food and agriculture, ICT and the digital economy, reforms of international financial institutions, the fight against terrorism, health and financial regulation. 

Russia's Kazan is hosting the 16th BRICS Summit           RIA

In recent years, at the initiative of China and Russia, the association has expanded the agenda of economic co-operation, as evidenced by the adoption of a roadmap on the implementation of The Strategy for BRICS Economic Partnership 2025, the opening of the New Development Bank (NDB), the creation of a pool of foreign exchange reserves and a fund of BRICS bonds in national currencies, the co-ordination of the integration plan for national payment systems, the functioning of a working group of central banks and the BRICS Business Council.
All decisions in the association are made by consensus. More than 100 meetings are held annually, of which about 20 are at the ministerial level.
The Russian presidency of the BRICS in 2024 allowed Belarus to participate in a wide range of events within the association, and in a number of them — in particular, the BRICS Foreign Ministers Meeting — for the first time.

• BRICS was formed in 2006. Its name is derived from the initial letters of the English names for the countries that were part of the association until 2024. BRICS stands for Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa. 
• Even at the time of its creation, the composition of its members, who produced nearly a quarter of the world’s GDP, appeared quite impressive. 
• In 2020, BRICS surpassed its main competitor that unites the most powerful countries of the West — the G7 — in terms of GDP. Thus, to date, the BRICS economy is the largest and fastest-growing in the world.

Based on materials of sb.by and belta.by