APA-Pretoria (South Africa) Leaders from Brazil, China, India and Russia have accepted the invitation to attend the BRICS summit to be held in South Africa in August, South Africa’s Ambassador-at-Large for Asia and BRICS, Anil Sooklal has confirmed.
Sooklal said on Sunday that “all the BRICS leaders have accepted the invite” by President Cyril Ramaphosa, including International Criminal Court (ICC)-target Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“And President Ramaphosa has extended an invite to all African heads of state and to the political heads of the Global South bodies (in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, Pacific Islands, and Asia).”
BRICS is a grouping of the world’s largest emerging economies Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa and has attracted interest from dozens of other developing countries that are keen to wean themselves of the current global economic and political order dominated by the United States.
According to Sooklal, the summit was originally scheduled for the Indian Ocean port city of Durban, but due to the large number of attendants, it was decided to move it to South Africa’s commercial hub Johannesburg.
The gathering will be one of the largest gatherings in the post-Covid era – with at least 1,000 delegates expected for the BRICS business council gathering, some 67 leaders for the summit, and a huge media contingent accompanying them.
“This is a summit that is critical as it will look at the challenges facing the global community, including economic and social challenges,” the envoy said.
“It will also be an opportunity to discuss the major power contestation taking place around the Russia-Ukraine conflict,” he said.
Putin’s visit has caused a lot of headaches for the South African government since the Russian leader has an ICC arrest warrant hanging over his head.
The ICC wants Putin to be arrested for allegedly committing other war crimes since his invasion of neighbouring Ukraine in February 2022.
NM/jn/APA