Putin Leads Top Delegation To BRICS Summit

By Kester Kenn Klomegah, GNA Moscow Bureau Chief
MOSCOW (Russia), July 26, GNA - Russian President Vladimir Putin is leading a powerful delegation made up of 12 of his most senior ministers including Foreign Affairs Minister, Sergey Lavrov, to attend the 10th BRICS summit in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The BRICS summit is being held under the theme 'BRICS in Africa: Collaboration for Inclusive Growth and Shared Prosperity in the 4th Industrial Revolution'.

Under the Chairmanship of South African leader, Cyril Ramaphosa, the five leaders (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), among others, will review BRICS' first ten years and discuss future cooperation including prospects of the group's expansion.

According the National Committee on BRICS Studies in Moscow, the summit involves an expanded-format. In 2013, when South Africa first hosted a BRICS summit, it invited a number of African leaders.

This year, the leaders of Angola, the Congo, Ethiopia, Gabon, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Senegal, Seychelles, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe were invited.

Apart from the Africans, the leaders of a number of countries presiding in major sectoral and regional associations were invited -- Argentina, as the country presiding in G20, Turkey, as the country presiding in the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and Jamaica, which is leading the Caribbean Community this year.

Lavrov noted that it was highly symbolic BRICS had returned to Africa in 2018 for its 10th summit which coincided with the 100th anniversary of the birth of Nelson Mandela, a prominent political and public figure of a global scale.

'The five countries advance the same principles that Nelson Mandela stood up for - equality, dignity and justice - when forming constructive and equitable polycentric pattern of international relations,' he added.

While praising South Africa for the active and highly effective work done at the helm of the Group in 2018, Larvov said 'South African friends have succeeded in strengthening successive, consistent, sustainable and continuous interaction between the five States. This serves as a foundation for the steady development of BRICS'.

'Russia supports fully BRICS priority areas of action proposed by South Africa for this year. The crosscutting issue of launching partnership on the Fourth Industrial Revolution - is of high relevance for us since it is in line with Russia's state programmes on digital economy development.'

Lavrov said Russia had consistently advocated a greater coordination of the five BRICS countries within major international platforms.

The anniversary meeting of the leaders was intended not only to confirm the BRICS countries' commitment to further strengthening of the full-fledged strategic partnership, but also to determine the key priorities of the «Big Five» activities for years to come.