What to expect from BRICS summit in Kazan?

Member states of BRICS

Established by Brazil, Russia, India and China in 2006, BRIC has been joined by six other countries since its foundation. In 2011, South Africa became a member country, and the grouping became known as BRICS. In January 2024, Egypt, Iran, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Ethiopia joined the group.

Russia will propose its initiatives at the summit in Kazan, and they will be related to its priorities outlined during its presidency in the association, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a briefing.

When will the BRICS 2024 summit be held?

The XVI BRICS summit will be held in the Russian city of Kazan from 22 to 24 October. Leaders from more than three dozen countries have confirmed their participation in the event. The leaders of regional organisations, the executive bodies of the relevant structures are also expected to arrive in Kazan, and the President of the New Development Bank, Dilma Rousseff, is also expected to make a speech. The motto of Russia's BRICS Chairmanship is "Strengthening Multilateralism for Just Global Development and Security".

What topics will be discussed at the BRICS summit?

Mikhail Khachaturyan, Associate Professor of the Department of Strategic and Innovative Development of the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, in an exclusive commentary for TV BRICS noted that the key issues of the BRICS summit in Kazan will be the expansion of the formats of economic, financial and trade interaction between the member countries. 

"The main issue in this aspect may be the discussion of possible directions for the formation of a BRICS unit of account, on the basis of which financial and economic settlements will be built between the member countries and possibly with third countries, provided they join this mechanism of international settlements," the expert said.

Khachaturyan claims that another aspect of financial interaction to be discussed at the summit in Kazan may be the issue of integration of digital currencies of the member countries.

Will BRICS expand further?

In April 2024, Sergey Ryabkov, Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister and BRICS sherpa, said at a press conference on the priorities of Russia's BRICS presidency that the BRICS delegations would present recommendations on the list of partner states to the BRICS leaders by the October summit in Kazan.

TV BRICS expert Mikhail Khachaturyan notes that the issue of expanding the number of BRICS member states or forming a special status for countries seeking to deepen interaction with the association is also likely to be considered in detail at the summit.

"It is obvious that we should not expect additional waves of BRICS expansion in the foreseeable future, as it is necessary to fine-tune the mechanisms of interaction with the five countries that have already joined the association. A solution to the issue of establishing a special status of BRICS partner countries will allow, on the one hand, to clearly delineate the range of countries interested in cooperation with the association, and on the other hand, to build a mechanism of interaction in the long term to ensure the possibility of membership in the association"

Mikhail Khachaturyan Expert in the field of the BRICS countries economics

The BRICS Summit will consist of two parts. The first is a meeting of the member countries of the organisation, which will be devoted to the theme "Strengthening Multilateralism for Just Global Development and Security", which is the motto of the Russian BRICS Chairmanship in 2024. The second part (from the afternoon of 23 October and 24 October) will be a BRICS outreach session, the theme of which will be "BRICS and the Global South: Building a Better World Together".