The meetings of the BRICS group in Kazan in Russia has showcased how strong the emerging alliance of non-Western countries is becoming. Russian President Vladimir Putin “proposed to discuss the idea of creating BRICS’ own platform that would help to unlock the potential of the growing economies of the association’s member states,” Russian state media TASS reported.
“It is obvious that the next wave of global economic growth is being born in the countries of the global majority. Therefore, the time has come to discuss the idea of creating our own platform to unlock the potential of our growing economies,” Putin said.
Russia is hoping to use the meeting of BRICS’ other countries – Brazil, India, China, and South Africa – along with new partners, to further its interests. Putin spoke about outreach to the rest of the world, to create a large non-Western bloc of states.
Using the Soviet Union's playbook
This is not unique in history. The Soviet Union did the same, as did the Non-Aligned Movement during the Cold War. However, the current effort has major ramifications for the war in Ukraine, Gaza, and other potential conflicts.
“It is important to build alternative, reliable, and free-from-any-dictate multilateral financial mechanisms for production, logistics chains, establish an exchange of technologies and advanced knowledge, and develop and increase the capacity of new international transport corridors,” Putin added. He also discussed new economic corridors such as one that would stretch through Iran.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi also made similar comments about how “the sun is rising from the East, and truly setting in the West,” he wrote on X/Twitter. The Iranian envoy said this was his takeaway “following close consultations with 11 nations in the past 2.5 weeks, accompanying President Pezeshkian to BRICS summit in Kazan.”
There are a number of countries that represent the new trend. BRICS was founded in 2009 at a meeting in Yekaterinburg between Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Dmitry Medvedev, Manmohan Singh, and Hu Jintao, the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, and China. South Africa joined two years later.
Now other countries are seeking to join or become partners. This includes Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Turkey – and even Saudi Arabia may consider joining. Expansion of BRICS into countries that are close to the West shows how many states are hedging their bets on this non-Western group of powerful economies.
The Iranian envoy used the 16th BRICS summit to slam Israel. “Araghchi also pointed out that the statement condemns the attacks by the Zionist regime on Gaza and Lebanon, emphasizing the need to cease these attacks,” Iranian state media noted.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian met with the presidents of Russia, China, South Africa, and Egypt, as well as the prime ministers of India and Ethiopia, and the head of state of the UAE.
This is important and may have ramifications for Israel because it is not present at these types of meetings. In fact, Israel has increasingly felt this kind of diplomatic isolation since the Hamas attack on October 7. Russia, Iran, and Turkey back Hamas.
Moscow also used this meeting to showcase that it can do outreach to the UN even while it has been charged with crimes in Ukraine. The head of the Duma (lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia) said that the meetings show that Russia is not highlighted.
Bolivia’s president also attended the BRICS meetings, according to Russian state media. Iranian media said that the countries “will sign comprehensive agreements for long-term cooperation, as well as bilateral agreements that include gas and corridor contracts.” Iran also held meetings with Armenia in Kazan.