Thursday, August 24, 2023

Iran, Saudi Arabia and Egypt are among 6 nations set to join China and Russia in BRICS economic bloc

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, centre right speaks to China's President Xi Jinping as President of Brazil Luiz Inacio Lula, left, and Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi look on, at the BRICS summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, Thursday, Aug. 24, 2023.
 (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)


GERALD IMRAY and MOGOMOTSI MAGOME
Thu, August 24, 2023

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Iran and Saudi Arabia were among six countries set to join Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa in the BRICS economic bloc from next year, the bloc announced Thursday, a move that will likely throw more scrutiny on Beijing's political influence in the Persian Gulf.

The United Arab Emirates, Argentina, Egypt and Ethiopia are also set to become new members of BRICS from 2024.

BRICS was set up in 2009 as a group of emerging market economies and has become one of the leading voices for more representation of the developing world and the Global South in world affairs.

It currently represents around 40% of the world's population and more than a quarter of the world's GDP, although that is set to increase with the new members, which include three of the world's biggest oil producers in Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Iran.

Recently, questions have been raised over if BRICS is taking an anti-West turn under the influence of China and Russia amid Beijing's deteriorating relationship with the United States and Russia's stand-off with the West over the war in Ukraine.

Mohammad Jamshidi, the political deputy of Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi, called the decision to add his country “a historic move.”

“A strategic victory for Iran’s foreign policy,” Jamshidi wrote on X, the website formerly known as Twitter. “Felicitations to the Supreme Leader of Islamic Revolution and great nation of Iran.”

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, whose country presently chairs BRICS, made the announcement on the six new members on the final day of the bloc's summit in the financial district of Sandton in Johannesburg.

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping are attending the summit and were present alongside Ramaphosa for the announcement.

“This membership expansion is historic,” Xi said. “It shows the determination of BRICS countries for unity and development.”

“Over the years, China has stood in solidarity with developing countries through thick and thin."


From left, Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, China's President Xi Jinping, South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov pose for a BRICS group photo during the 2023 BRICS Summit at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg, South Africa, Wednesday, Aug. 23, 2023.
 (Gianluigi Guercia/Pool via AP)


Russian President Vladimir Putin did not travel to the summit after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for him in March for the abduction of children from Ukraine. He has participated in the summit virtually, while Russia was represented at the announcement in Johannesburg by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

While Saudi Arabia had been touted as a likely new member if the five current BRICS members reached a consensus on expansion, Iran's inclusion had been viewed as possibly politically problematic. China and Russia were pushing for expansion, but Brazil, India and South Africa, which have strong bilateral ties with the U.S., only gave their approval more recently.

The current members agreed on the final details of expansion after two days of talks in Johannesburg, although Ramaphosa said the idea had been worked on for over a year.

The BRICS leaders began their talks in Johannesburg on Tuesday night and were locked in discussions most of the day Wednesday, thrashing out the final details. BRICS is a consensus-based organization and all members have to agree on policies.

It's the second time that BRICS has decided to expand. The bloc was formed in 2009 by Brazil, Russia, India and China. South Africa was added in 2010.

In an online message, United Arab Emirates leader Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan welcomed the BRICS announcement and said his nation would be joining an “important group.”

“We look forward to a continued commitment of cooperation for the prosperity, dignity and benefit of all nations and people around the world,” Sheikh Mohammed said on X.

Until recently, the inclusion of Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates together in the same economic or political organization would have been unthinkable, as tensions escalated following the collapse of Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal and a series of attacks attributed to the country since.

But as the coronavirus pandemic receded, the UAE became the first to reengage diplomatically with Iran, following missile attacks on Abu Dhabi claimed by the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels of Yemen.

In March, Saudi Arabia and Iran announced they had reached a separate détente with Chinese mediation. China has sought closer relations with all three nations, particularly Iran, from which it has imported oil since the collapse of the nuclear deal.

Both Saudi Arabia and the UAE also have maintained relations with Russia amid Moscow’s war on Ukraine, much to the chagrin of Washington, which long has provided security guarantees for the major oil-producing nations.

Egypt President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi said in a statement that his country would cooperate and coordinate with the rest of the members to achieve the bloc’s aims in economic cooperation, and to “raise the voice of the Global South."

The news was also a major boost for Ethiopia, Africa’s second most populous country and one of the fastest-growing economies on the continent, as its government works to reengage with many global partners and financial institutions after a devastating two-year conflict in the country’s Tigray region ended last year.

The war caused billions of dollars of damage and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, under pressure from the U.S. and European Union, has turned to other partners like China, Russia and Gulf nations for support.

___

AP writers Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran, Samy Magdy in Cairo, and Cara Anna in Nairobi, Kenya contributed to this report.



South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, centre, delivers the XV BRICS summit declaration flanked by from left, President of Brazil Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, President of China Xi Jinping, Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi and Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, in Johannesburg, South Africa, Thursday, Aug. 24, 2023. 
(AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

Members of the media watch Russia's President Vladimir Putin address via videolink the 2023 BRICS Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, Wednesday, Aug. 23, 2023. 
(AP Photo/Jerome Delay)

Russian President Vladimir Putin listens to leaders from the BRICS group of emerging economies at the start of a three-day summit in Johannesburg, South Africa via videoconference from Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, Aug. 23, 2023. Putin appeared on a video link after his travel to South Africa was complicated by an International Criminal Court arrest warrant against him over the war in Ukraine. 
(Mikhail Klimentyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)


China's President Xi Jinping claps during the BRICS summit , in Johannesburg, South Africa, Wednesday, Aug. 23, 2023. 
(Alet Pretorius/Pool Photo via AP)

China's President Jinping speaks at the 2023 BRICS Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, Thursday, Aug. 24, 2023. 
(AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)


Putin’s voice in BRICS address raises eyebrows

Brad Dress
Wed, August 23, 2023



As expected, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday addressed an annual business summit of world leaders gathered in South Africa. But this time, the Russian leader delivered his remarks with an altered voice.

Putin appeared via a prerecorded video at a meeting for a grouping of the economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa (BRICS) in Johannesburg, where he discussed the affairs of the business council in an altered, deep voice.

The voice, much lower than Putin’s regular pitch, appears to be a type of generated AI voice changer, but it’s unclear why his voice was changed and how exactly it was altered.

Putin, who appears to be speaking from his office at the Kremlin in Moscow in the video, did not travel to Johannesburg for the summit because he would have risked an arrest.

The Russian leader is facing a global arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC) for the kidnapping of Ukrainian children. South Africa is a part of the ICC and would have been obliged to arrest him.

The 32-second clip with Putin’s distorted voice is from a larger roughly 15-minute video address that was played for the BRICS audience on Tuesday. The short clip appears to be from the beginning of the video.

The recorded video message on the Kremlin’s website retains Putin’s normal voice, but the Russian leader coughs several times in the beginning.

Putin appeared via video link on Wednesday with his regular voice, according to a clip shared by Russian state-run media outlet TASS.

In his Tuesday remarks, Putin discussed Russia’s willingness to return to the Black Sea grain deal with Ukraine if certain conditions are met, a line Moscow has repeated.

The deal, which Russia dropped out of last month, had allowed Ukraine to transport important grain products out of the Black Sea without interference from Russian forces.

Putin has used the major summit in South Africa to accuse the West of starting the war in Ukraine and to shore up support with allies at a time when Russia is increasingly isolated on the international stage. On Wednesday, world leaders agreed to expand the alliance.

The BRICS summit began Tuesday and ends Thursday.

China says African countries want industrialisation over infrastructure


Tue, August 22, 2023 

South Africa hosts BRICS leaders summit

By Carien du Plessis and Tannur Anders

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - African countries want China to shift its focus from building infrastructure on the continent to local industrialisation, China's top Africa diplomat said on Tuesday at a briefing on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in South Africa.

"African integration is already escalating and many African countries (have) asked China to consider (a) shift (of) our focus," Wu Peng, director-general of China's department of African affairs at its foreign ministry, said.

Wu said the change was needed especially considering the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA), which was launched at the start of 2021 and is intended to enable African countries to trade tariff-free in future.

China will talk through its plans for African industrialisation with African leaders on Thursday at a special roundtable on the sidelines of the Aug. 22-24 meeting of the BRICS bloc - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

Between 2000 and 2020, Chinese lenders - mostly state-owned banks - agreed to lend $160 billion to African countries, according to Boston University.

Loan commitments soared after Xi launched the "Belt and Road Initiative" in 2013 to fund infrastructure in developing countries, but then dropped sharply from a peak of $28.4 billion in 2016 to $1.9 billion in 2020.

Wu said the "urgent" discussion of "emergency issues" couldn't wait until the next Forum for China-Africa Cooperation, a regular meeting between Chinese and African ministers due to take place next year.

He also said that investments by Chinese companies in Africa, especially from small and medium-sized companies, would increase.

"No matter what happens about the global economy, or Chinese economy, the trend in the relatively midterm or long range, (is that) Chinese companies are willing to take some risk (to) go into Africa," Wu added.

(Reporting by Carien du Plessis and Tannur Anders; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)



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