Russian President Vladimir Putin, unable to participate in the BRICS Summit in person due to the International Criminal Court, spoke to the first plenary session on Sunday, July 6, by video. He conveyed his optimism over the BRICS work, noting its growing “global authority and influence” which has resulted from the members’ deepening cooperation in the areas of politics, security, economy and finance, cultural and humanitarian contacts. Included now in the ranks of its members are leading states from Eurasia, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America, which, together, possess “a vast political, economic, scientific, technological, and human potential.”
In his short speech, Putin picked up right where he left off at the end of the 2024 BRICS summit last October, when he raised the urgent need for a new credit mechanism to fund development in the Global South and East, with credit generated from within the BRICS countries themselves—i.e., outside the bankrupt dollar-denominated trans-Atlantic system.
“Multiplying mutual capital investment by the BRICS countries, including through BRICS mechanisms, primarily, the New Development Bank appears to be an important goal as well. To this end, Russia proposed creating a whole new BRICS investment platform. The idea behind it is to jointly develop coordinated instruments to support and to bring in the funds from the economies of BRICS countries and from the Global South and Global East countries.” Brazil, he said, was receptive to this initiative, and continued the discussion of the idea under their chairmanship.
