Russia’s president attended the plenary session of the bloc’s 17th summit virtually.
Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia, is scheduled to speak at the main session of the 17th BRICS summit. This yearly two-day meeting commenced on Sunday in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which currently serves as the rotating chair of the group.
Sergey Lavrov, the Foreign Minister, heads Russia’s delegation for this year’s event. Mr. Putin’s virtual attendance is for the plenary session titled ‘Strengthening Multilateralism, Economic-Financial Affairs, and Artificial Intelligence’.
Brazil has outlined six key areas for this year’s agenda: global health collaboration; commerce, investment, and finance; climate change; AI regulation; restructuring the multilateral peace and security framework; and internal institutional growth within BRICS.
Approximately 4,000 attendees from 37 countries are participating in this year’s summit, comprising high-ranking officials from member nations, partner states, and global organizations.
Initially established as an economic collective in 2006 by Brazil, Russia, India, and China, BRICS welcomed South Africa in 2010. In the last year, the alliance granted full membership to Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, the United Arab Emirates, and Indonesia.
During its previous summit in Kazan, Russia, BRICS introduced a new ‘partner country’ designation, driven by interest in joining from over 30 nations.