PNN – The 16th summit of the BRICS group will start on Wednesday with the presence of the leaders of the member states, including the president of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Dr. Masoud Pezishkiyan, in Kazan, the center of Russia’s Tatarstan.
According to the report of Pakistan News Network, A commemorative photo of the leaders will be the beginning of this international event, and then the heads of the delegations of the member countries, including the Islamic Republic of Iran, Russia, Brazil, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Ethiopia, will discuss in limited and broad formats about the agenda of this meeting.
The Islamic Republic of Iran, which has joined the BRICS group since the beginning of 2024, is participating in this summit for the first time as an official and full-fledged member.
For the same purpose and at the invitation of the president, Pezishkiyan arrived in Kazan and is supposed to express the views of the Islamic Republic of Iran to strengthen the interaction and cooperation in BRICS and discuss with some of the participating leaders about the promotion of bilateral relations and discuss issues of interest to the parties.
What is the agenda of the 16th BRICS summit?
Strengthening multilateralism for equitable global development and security is the main theme of the BRICS summit on Wednesday.
According to the assistant of the Russian president for foreign policy affairs, the members of the participating delegations will discuss in a limited format on this day the resolution of regional conflicts, financial interaction in BRICS and possible scenarios for increasing the number of members.
This Russian official stated: In this meeting, opinions will be exchanged about the cooperation between the BRICS countries at the international level, and the leaders of the countries will discuss the status of financial cooperation between the member countries of the group.
Also, according to the announcement of Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, the issue of Gaza and Lebanon will be part of the consultations of the summit and parts of the final document.
Basic information about the provisions of the BRICS Declaration
Since, according to Ushakov, the BRICS summit will be the final statement, it seems that the leaders of this group will dedicate a part of their meeting to the review of this statement, a statement that in a way sums up the results of the BRICS meetings in various political and security fields. It is economic, financial, cultural and humanitarian, and in recent days, Sherpas and Susherpas have discussed its provisions as national representatives of the member countries.
Creation of the category of BRICS partner countries
Since the new members joined BRICS from the beginning of 2024, a number of other countries, whose number is about 30 countries, have announced their desire to join or improve the level of cooperation in the form of partnership with this group.
Iranian Foreign Minister Araghchi said in a speech on Tuesday evening that BRICS has found its own attractions and now about 30 countries are willing to join BRICS and added: In this meeting, it was decided that 10 more countries will be added to the BRICS group as partners.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov announced earlier that at the meeting of foreign ministers of BRICS countries, it was decided to stop accepting new members of this group.
According to Sergei Ryabkov, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, BRICS is developing criteria for a new category – partner countries. Such criteria, along with a list of countries that could become them, are expected to be presented for approval by BRICS leaders at the Kazan summit.
In the latest comment on the link, an aide to the Russian president announced on Tuesday, a day before the summit, that 13 countries are in talks to obtain “BRICS partner status”.
He added: Obtaining the status of a BRICS partner country “is a matter of consultation between the delegations and will be discussed by the [BRICS member countries] leaders.”
The BRICS group was established in Yekaterinburg, Russia in 2009 with the participation of Brazil, Russia, India and China; the following year, South Africa joined this group.
The Islamic Republic of Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia and the UAE also joined this group from the beginning of 2024. According to some Russian officials, Saudi Arabia, despite being invited to this group, is still making decisions in this regard. It has been said that the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Saudi Arabia will head the delegation of this country in this meeting.
Kazan is the center of the Russian Republic of Tatarstan, the third city of this country in terms of tourism after Moscow and Saint Petersburg, and is located about 800 kilometers east of Moscow.
Brazil will hold the rotating presidency of BRICS from the beginning of 2025.