Leaders of some of the developing world’s most important economies turned Wednesday to the main business of their summit in South Africa, a day after a speech by Russian President Vladimir Putin gave the gathering an anti-Western tinge that officials had been hoping to avoid.
The BRICS group of emerging economies made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa is debating whether to expand the bloc and allow new members more than a decade after it came into existence.
More than 20 countries have formally applied to join the group, officials say, with Saudi Arabia one of the most significant.
Four of the bloc’s leaders, including Chinese President Xi Jinping, are in Johannesburg for the group’s first in-person meeting since the Covid-19 pandemic. Putin is not attending after an International Criminal Court arrest warrant for him over the war in Ukraine complicated his travel to South Africa, but he is participating virtually.
Source: France24
