A banner with the logo of the annual BRICS summit next to the Kazan Kremlin, in Kazan, Russia, on Oct. 22.Maxim Shemetov/Reuters
China’s Xi Jinping, India’s Narendra Modi and other global leaders arrived Tuesday in the Russian city of Kazan for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies that the Kremlin hopes to turn into a rallying point for defying what some see as the Western liberal order.
For Russian President Vladimir Putin, the three-day meeting also offers a powerful way to demonstrate the failure of U.S.-led efforts to isolate Russia over its actions in Ukraine.
Kremlin foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov called it “the largest foreign policy event ever held” by Russia, with 36 countries attending and more than 20 of them represented by heads of state.
The alliance that initially included Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa has expanded rapidly to embrace Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. Turkey, Azerbaijan and Malaysia have formally applied to become members, and a few others have expressed interest in joining.
Observers see the BRICS summit as part of the Kremlin’s efforts to showcase support from the Global South amid spiralling tensions with the West while expanding economic and financial ties.
Proposed projects include the creation of a new payment system that would offer an alternative to the global bank messaging network SWIFT and allow Moscow to dodge Western sanctions and trade with partners.
Mr. Putin, who will hold about 20 bilateral meetings on the sidelines, conferred with Mr. Xi, Mr. Modi and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Tuesday ahead of the summit’s opening.
Weeks before Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Mr. Xi and Mr. Putin announced a “no-limits” partnership. They already met twice this year, in Beijing in May and at a Shanghai Co-operation Organization summit in Kazakhstan in July.
Welcoming Mr. Xi, Mr. Putin described the relations between Moscow and Beijing as “one of the main stabilizing factors on the world arena.” He vowed to “expand co-ordination on all multilateral forums for the sake of global stability and a fair world order.”
“Amid tectonic transformations unseen for centuries, the international situation is undergoing serious changes and upheavals,” Mr. Xi said, hailing the “unprecedented character” of Russia-China ties.
Mr. Xi and Mr. Putin also discussed the Ukraine crisis, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, although he gave no details about those talks.
Russia’s co-operation with India has also flourished. New Delhi considers Moscow a time-tested partner since Cold War times despite Russia’s close ties with India’s main rival, China.
Western allies want India to be more active in persuading Moscow to end the war in Ukraine, but Mr. Modi has avoided condemning Russia while emphasizing a peaceful settlement.
On the eve of the summit, Mr. Modi thanked Mr. Putin for his “strong friendship” and praised growing co-operation and the evolution of BRICS but also said that India felt the conflict in Ukraine should be ended peacefully.
“We have been in constant touch on the subject of the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine,” Mr. Modi said. “We believe that problems should be resolved only through peaceful means.”
Mr. Putin hailed what he described as a “privileged strategic partnership” between Russia and India.
When asked by BRICS reporters about the prospects for peace, Mr. Putin said that Moscow would not trade away the four regions of eastern Ukraine that it says are now part of Russia and that Moscow wants its long-term security interests taken into account in Europe.
Two Russian sources said that, while there was increasing talk in Moscow of a possible ceasefire agreement, there was nothing concrete yet – and that the world was awaiting the result of the Nov. 5 presidential election in the United States.
Russia, which is advancing, controls about one-fifth of Ukraine, including Crimea, which it seized and unilaterally annexed in 2014, about 80 per cent of the Donbas – a coal-and-steel zone comprising the Donetsk and Luhansk regions – and more than 70 per cent of the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions.
Mr. Putin said the West had now realized that Russia would be victorious, but that he was open to talks based on draft ceasefire agreements reached in Istanbul in April, 2022.
During a meeting with Mr. Ramaphosa, the Russian President emphasized their shared striving for a “fair, multipolar global order” and specifically mentioned efforts by BRICS members to create a “new independent payment system.”
On Thursday, Mr. Putin is also set to meet with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who will be making his first visit to Russia in more than two years. Mr. Guterres has repeatedly criticized Russia’s actions in Ukraine.
With files from Reuters