The group’s foreign ministers gathered in Russia this week to discuss economic cooperation and need for a multipolar world order
Participants in the BRICS ministerial meeting have condemned the US and its allies for engaging in protectionism in international trade, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said.
His remarks come in the wake of a two-day meeting of the BRICS foreign ministers chaired by Lavrov in the Russian city of Nizhny Novgorod. It’s the first ministerial meeting since the expansion of the group.
“Most delegations emphasized the destructive nature of the egoistic policy of trade protectionism pursued by the United States and its allies,” Lavrov told a press conference on Tuesday following the event.
The Russian FM pointed out that “all delegations spoke in favor of reforming the existing systems of global governance, with a focus on giving the countries of the Global South a bigger voice.”
The participants acknowledged the need for joint decisions in achieving the goals of sustainable development, security and economic growth, according to Lavrov.
The transition to a new world order could take an entire historical era and will be thorny, according to Lavrov. He spoke about new centers being formed by the countries of the Global South and East for making globally significant political decisions based on sovereign equality and diversity.
The BRICS economic bloc, formed in 2009, has presented itself as an alternative to Western-dominated international institutions. It originally comprised Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, but underwent a major expansion when Iran, Ethiopia, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates joined in early 2024. Numerous other states have expressed interest in joining, with some having already formally submitted applications.
According to analytical company Statista, BRICS overtook the G7 countries’ share of the world’s total GDP in terms of purchasing power parity in 2020. As of 2023, BRICS accounted for 32% of global GDP.
The head of the BRICS bank (NDB), Dilma Rousseff, said earlier that the addition of the new members would see the group’s share in global economic output rise to 40% by 2028.
