Russian President Vladimir Putin will be meeting this week with China’s Xi Jinping, India’s Narendra Modi, Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Iran’s Masoud Pezeshkian, defying predictions that the war in Ukraine and an international arrest warrant would turn Mr. Putin into a pariah.
They will all be in the Russian city of Kazan on Tuesday for a meeting of the BRICS bloc of developing economies.
The alliance, which aims to counterbalance the Western-led world order, initially included Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa but is expanding rapidly. Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia joined in January; Turkey, Azerbaijan and Malaysia formally applied, and a number of others expressed a desire to be members.
Russian officials already see the meeting as a massive success. Putin’s foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov said 36 countries confirmed participation, and more than 20 will send heads of state. Mr. Putin will hold around 20 bilateral meetings, Mr. Ushakov said, and the summit could turn into “the largest foreign policy event ever held” on Russian soil.
– AFP
