Financial cooperation and BRICS expansion are on the table as Putin hosts Global South leaders

KAZAN, Russia (AP) — Russia’s President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday hosted China’s Xi Jinping, India’s Narendra Modi and other world leaders at a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, part of the Kremlin's efforts to challenge Western global clout.

Speaking at the start of Wednesday's BRICS meeting, Putin named the deepening of cooperation in the financial sector as part of its agenda. He said participants were also set to discuss a range of international issues including the settlement of regional conflicts, along with the expansion of the BRICS group of countries.

“BRICS strategy on the global arena conforms with the strivings of the main part of the global community, the so-called global majority,” Putin said.

The alliance that initially included Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa has expanded to embrace Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. Turkey, Azerbaijan and Malaysia have formally applied to become members, and several others have expressed interest in joining.

The three-day summit in the city of Kazan was attended by 36 countries, highlighting the failure of U.S.-led efforts to isolate Russia over its actions in Ukraine. The Kremlin touted the summit as “the largest foreign policy event ever held” by Russia.

The Kremlin has cast BRICS as a counterbalance to the Western-dominated global order and redoubled its efforts to court the countries of the Global South after sending troops into Ukraine in February 2022.

Russia has specifically pushed for the creation of a new payment system that would offer an alternative to the global bank messaging network SWIFT and allow Moscow to dodge Western sanctions and trade with partners.

Speaking at the summit, Putin also proposed creating a new BRICS investment platform, saying that it could "become a powerful tool for supporting our economies, and would also provide financial resources to countries of the Global South and East.”

The Russian leader and Xi had announced a “no-limits” partnership weeks before Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. They already met twice earlier this year, in Beijing in May and at a Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Kazakhstan in July.

On Wednesday, Xi emphasized the bloc’s role in ensuring global security and emphasized the need to avoid an escalation of the Ukrainian conflict. China and Brazil have put forward a peace plan that Ukraine has rejected.

Putin on Tuesday described the relations between Moscow and Beijing as “one of the main stabilizing factors on the world arena.” He vowed to “expand coordination on all multilateral forums for the sake of global stability and a fair world order.”

Russia’s cooperation with India has also flourished as New Delhi sees Moscow as a time-tested partner since Cold War times despite Russia’s close ties with India’s main rival, China. Western allies want India to be more active in persuading Moscow to end the fighting in Ukraine, but Modi has avoided condemning Russia while emphasizing a peaceful settlement.

“We support dialogue and diplomacy, not war,” Modi said during Wednesday's BRICS meeting in remarks carried by the Indian foreign ministry. Modi's visit to the summit marked his second trip to Russia in three months.

“As a diverse and inclusive platform, BRICS can play a positive role in all areas,” Modi said.

Putin is also set to meet Thursday with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who has repeatedly criticized Moscow's actions in Ukraine and is making his first visit to Russia in more than two years. Guterres's trip to Kazan has drawn an angry reaction from Kyiv.

“This is a wrong choice that does not advance the cause of peace,” Ukraine's Foreign Ministry said on X, adding that “it only damages the U.N.’s reputation.”

Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for Guterres, responded to the Ukrainian criticism by saying that the visit is “a standard practice in attending meetings of organizations with large numbers of important member states, such as the G7 and the G20.”

“There’s a meeting with great importance for the work of the United Nations, with the BRICS countries representing about half the world’s population,” Haq said.

Putin is expected to hold more than a dozen bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the summit.