Moscow: Agencies
Today, Tuesday, the summit of the BRICS leaders will begin. The Russian presidency (the Kremlin) announced that the deteriorating situation in the Middle East will top the agenda of the participants in the BRICS summit, which will be held in the city of Kazan today, Tuesday, and will last for three days.
The Kremlin press service reported - in a statement reported by the Russian news agency "TASS" - that "the agenda will include urgent international issues, especially the escalation of the situation in the Middle East, as well as interaction between the BRICS countries and the Global South for sustainable development."
Reports indicated that Russian President Vladimir Putin "will hold bilateral meetings with almost all the leaders participating in the summit."
38 countries confirmed their participation in the BRICS summit, in the Russian city of Kazan, under the slogan "Strengthening multilateralism for fair global development and security." According to the Middle East News Agency, 24 leaders will participate in the three-day summit, including Chinese President Xi Jinping, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Iranian President Masoud Peskov, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, Turkmen President Sardar Berdimuhamedow, while high-level representatives from 8 countries will be represented. The summit will also be attended by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and President of the New Development Bank of the BRICS group Dilma Rousseff. The BRICS group includes Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. In Cairo, it was announced that President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi will travel to the Russian Federation today to participate in the BRICS summit, held in Kazan. This summit will witness - for the first time - Egypt's participation as a member of the group, since its official joining at the beginning of this year. The official spokesman for the Presidency of the Republic stated that the President will review during the summit Egypt's vision and positions on a number of important international and regional topics and issues, especially ways to enhance cooperation between the group's countries, in a way that ensures the development of multilateral action, and contributes to addressing the complex challenges facing the world politically and economically, as well as reforming the global financial structure to achieve the desired balance, especially with regard to strengthening the voice and interests of developing countries in various international and regional forums, in light of the growing negative effects of international conflicts and crises on the development process in developing countries. The President's interventions will also address climate change issues, and ways to support joint economic and development cooperation between the group's countries.