Upcoming BRICS' Summit: Will Putin be Attending???

Hello everybody and welcome to Geopolitical Trends. My name is David Oualaalou. So good to be with you as always. Foreign ministers from the BRICS group of major emerging economies just concluded, uh, its meetings in preparation for the upcoming BRICS summit. What should we expect from that? In this video, I'm going to provide you my brief analysis as to what lies ahead for BRICS and answer the fundamental question of whether the Russian President Vladimir Putin will be attending the meeting or the summit or not. But before I'll do this, I like to always thank, uh, express my sincere thanks to the channel's members and supporters, and to you if you're already a subscriber. And if this is your first time landing on this channel, please make sure to, uh, subscribe and smash that notification button so you will be notified every time I upload a new video. And thank you all for your continued support. Let's dive in into this. The, uh, the, uh, 2-day meetings, uh, in Cape Town, which just concluded recently, laid now the groundwork for the upcoming summit in South Africa, in Johannesburg, for BRICS, which will be in August. So the leaders of the BRICS— Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa— will be meeting in August. And this summit, which I will of course provide you an analysis about it, uh, this summit in my opinion will be one of the most important. And as the bloc sort of now opens its door to other countries and looks at an alternative, uh, what's the word I'm looking for, trading currencies to the dollar. This is what, what's gonna be very fascinating about the upcoming summit. And again, I am looking at signs, I'm reading the statements, and I read the states, and I'm gonna share with you, uh, what some of the statements, uh, uh, uh, were about to highlight to you the importance. The upcoming summit, one of its alternative now, or objective, is to figure out a mechanism by which to find an alternative trading to the US dollar. While at the same time the foreign ministers from the 5 countries BRICS, Brazil, Russia, India, China, and our, and South Africa, called for, and I put this in quote, rebalancing of the world order. That is a very, very interesting wording of the final communiqué that was issued by the foreign ministers. So the thing is, is that the BRICS now is openly open— get this, guys— open to enlargements and calls for a multipolar world. So what's important about this, you may ask? When an economic bloc like BRICS, you know, issue the statements like this, that's usually a hint for not only the change in global order but also the possibility of Hey, other countries, if you like to join us, we are most welcome, assuming you meet certain criteria and so forth. So, so here's the thing. You got Russia and China, the two key players in, in the, in the BRICS bloc, have raised the possibility of BRICS accepting new members. So meanwhile Okay, here's the thing. That's going to be the fundamental questions. The attendance of the Russian President Vladimir Putin in August, as of now, remains unclear because there is no definitive, definitive, rather, confirmation from the Kremlin regarding his attendance. You take this into context as to, as I said earlier, the statements, because they do matter. And I'm going to share with you some statements that I just read from the final communique. You take, for example, Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyan Jaishankar said in opening remarks, and I quote, let me get the quote here for you guys. We are a symbol of change and must act accordingly. Our gathering must send out a strong message that the world is multipolar. Okay, that it is rebalancing and that old ways cannot address new situations, end of quote. You all know what he meant by old ways cannot address new situations. The thinking, the geopolitical structure, the old one that was for the last 30 years, it's not gonna be hold anymore. Or it's not going to be effective, or it's not going to be working in the new setting in a multipolar system. That's what I found very interesting. So here's a question for you guys just to ponder about, and if you like it, you can leave me an answer, or if you feel like it, we can even expand on it in a live stream, because I only provide you brief analysis, concise, to the point, because I don't want to keep it too long here. So here's a question for you: Do you believe the concentration of economic power leaves too many nations at the mercy of too few? Let me repeat that. Do you believe, in your opinion, the concentration of economic power leaves, leaves too many nations at the mercy of too few? So as I said, if you feel like it, leave me some answers and I read the comments, or we can extend it on it a live stream. So, so here's the thing. What BRICS foreign ministers discussed during this meeting. So the BRICS, by the way, as you may know, I'm sure you do, just in case some do not know, BRICS, it's a group comprised of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. So, so the talks that took place among the top envoy from the groups, the centered on the potential use of alternative currencies to the US dollar for international trade. This is another keyword. Remember, it didn't say for bilateral trade, it's for international trade. And also strengthening the group's New Development Bank. Why is this important? Well, on two fronts. On the first one, international trade, that's an a subtle message for, like I said earlier, BRICS still in countries. Hey, we are open for business if you are interested, assuming you meet certain criteria. And the second one has to do with, with the strengthening of the New Development Bank. Why is this important? Because as the time of this recording, there is a conversation going on between Saudi Arabia and the New Development Bank. Saudi Arabia wants to join the, uh, the, the Joint Development Bank because adding members like Saudi Arabia will boost the New Development Bank's financial muscle. You have to look at it from a business perspective also. So like I said, Saudi Arabia is in talks right now to join the New Development Bank, and usually that is the first step to joining BRICS. So the foreign ministers of the bloc also discussed reforming global decision-making, which I found very interesting. What are we talking about here? We're talking about the statements by the South African foreign minister. Her name is Naledi Pandor— Naledi, I'm sorry, Naledi Pandor— who criticized, and rightly so, criticized the lack of permanent African representation at the UN Security Council. Well, it's about time to restructure or change the structure of the UN Security Council. You all know there are only 5 permanent members and they decide for the rest of the world, and it can't be. There are more than just 5 countries in the world. You know, you have China, you have Russia, you have UK,, you, uh, US and, and, and Canada, the 5 permanent members. So, but it's about time, it has to change somehow. As a matter of fact, I do recall a couple years ago Russia was calling for restructuring this. You give some sort of temporary memberships to rotate it, you know, not permanent. So I, I can see her argument. So So the other question that we need to wonder is, could BRICS, by the time they meet in August, expand to include new members? I believe so. And even the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, said, and I quote, more than a dozen, end of quote, countries had expressed interest in joining the BRICS group. Yeah. So the possibility of the expansion is there. And what makes it very interesting is that— and I already talked about this one at some point— what makes it— it's like when you add like an oil-producing nations of Saudi Arabia, Iran, United Arab Emirates, you can only imagine how this is going to be economically speaking, with the assumption that BRICS moves forward. Otherwise, BRICS is going to be just a hollow, an empty hollow per se. And they need to be careful about— when you call for the change into the multipolar system, you have to prove that indeed you are contributing to that change in the global system. So the next, uh, consideration, it's going to be like how this issue of enlargement of BRICS is going to be managed per se. And this is something they discussed during the last, the recent meeting that is, that was just concluded. As a matter of fact, Saudi Arabia, the Prime Minister, or foreign, I'm sorry, the Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had a conversation with his counterparts from Saudi Arabia, Faisal bin Farhan, who is by the way This foreign minister of Saudi Arabia is in Cape Town, so they already had a conversation about it because the expansion will have to be managed accordingly. Otherwise, it will be a problem. So the Chinese vice foreign minister, uh, uh, Mao, Mao Zedong— I hope I pronounce it correctly— he said that Beijing expects the group to take on a new member. And I'm gonna share the quotes from him with you here. He said, and I quote, "We expect more countries to join our big family," end of quote. It's an interesting saying. He didn't say the economic blocs, he didn't say BRICS, he didn't say whatever. He used the term a big family because the family Always, it means what? When you talk about your family, what does it mean? You know, close people to you. You're not gonna screw them around, you're not gonna mess around with them, you're not gonna sort of lie to them, you're not gonna, you know, it's family members. You're gonna protect them, you're gonna love them, of course, and you're gonna work together. That's what I found very interesting about Ma's statement. So And of course, the question that looms large is, will Putin attend or participate in BRICS summits in August? So far, there's no indication that he will. There's no confirmation yet. So, and the talks, of course, within the prime ministers, because they had to address this issue, how it's going to manage. And the reason being, it's because South Africa is a member of the IC So, and by the way, guys, if you like the content of my videos so far, please hit that like button and subscribe if you have not done so. And thank you for your support. So, because here's the thing, South Africa is a member of the International Criminal Court, known as ICC, which, as you may know, has already issued an arrest warrant against the Russian president. South Africa, in this case, it will be required based on the— to arrest the Russian president under the terms of the treaty that established the ICC. That's the law, that's the legal aspects of it. However, South Africa, as we speak now, as the time of this recording, it is sort of wondering about a mechanism, a legal mechanism, by which how they're gonna look at this issue. Because South Africa is inviting the Russian president, and if you, if anything, about international protocol and diplomacy and so forth, when a head of state is invited, the country that extended the invitation will have to ensure the security of that head of state. So if South Africa is extending the invitation, it falls now on South Africa to provide security for the Russian president, you know. But they are looking at the legal aspects of it. So, but so far the Kremlin has not confirmed whether the Russian president is going to be attending or not. Uh, I don't know, maybe they wait until, uh, probably next month. I don't know, I, I don't have an answer yet. But I am keeping an eye open as to where I could get some indication whether he will attend the summit or not. And like I said earlier, guys, if you want me to elaborate more on this, we can do it in a live stream. Just leave me comments that you guys want that, and I will be happy to do it. So, so here's my brief conclusion for you. One thing is sure, one thing is sure, we live, you and I, We live right now in a historic moment in the history of the world. Why? Because we are witnessing the shift of the global order from a unipolar to a multipolar. That is a historical fact. So consider yourself lucky to be alive to witness this, because we are witnessing this one. So, so once again, guys, if you like the content of my video, please hit that like button. And subscribe. I will truly appreciate it. And as always, remember, geopolitics impacts your daily life in more ways than one. Till next time, guys. Bye-bye.