Both in his central address to the BRICS Summit on Sept. 12 and his remarks the day before to the BRICS Business Forum meeting, Russian President Putin emphasized that the days of the trans-Atlantic system’s unipolar world are numbered, and that the BRICS nations have a major role to play in shaping the system that will replace it.
“The unipolar system of international relations, which served the interests of a narrow group of countries, is gradually becoming a thing of the past. The global balance of power is shifting towards new centers of growth in the Global South and East,” Putin stated at the summit’s opening event, adding: “However, the transition towards a multipolar world is not without difficulties. As we can all see it, it is being resisted by those who remain accustomed to thinking in colonial terms, dividing the world into a flourishing garden and a wild jungle and seeking to prosper at the expense of others. Unwilling to accept the new realities, they are using every means at their disposal to hold back emerging competitors.”
He told the Business Forum meeting that the ancien regime is “resorting to every conceivable means to reclaim their erstwhile dominance. Such competition, as my colleague from Iran has just observed, is now assuming, at times, most unseemly forms—unseemly even at the state level. They go so far as to employ instruments of direct physical force, including the destruction of industrial and logistical infrastructure, pipelines, and similar facilities. Efforts are underway to block international transport corridors, to seize sea‑going vessels, while illegal restrictions are imposed, accompanied by threats of so‑called secondary sanctions, on those who refuse to act in the interests of others and instead seek to defend their own national interests.”
Russia and its people, in the face of 30,000 sanctions imposed on them, have “strengthened our national sovereignty and are forging ties with reliable, predictable partners…. We are ready to contribute to the world’s energy and food security together with our partners, and to jointly shape reliable global routes, such as the Trans-Arctic Transport Corridor and the North-South International Corridor.”
Besides their large population, geographic area, and resource base, Putin stated at the BRICS opening session, the BRICS have another feature, “which in contemporary conditions, I think, may be the key one: Our countries possess a huge, enormous intellectual and technological potential. This is what our substantial advantage is, to my mind,” Putin concluded.
