Thread by @richimedhurst

🧵LIVE THREAD | BRICS Day 3, August 24:

I'm accredited to cover the #BRICSSummit2023 🇧🇷🇷🇺🇮🇳🇨🇳🇿🇦

HUGE developments today. All news and updates below. Bookmark and share the thread!

BRICS has just added six new countries! They shall become formal members in January 2024. The list includes major oil producers, as well as other large, emerging economies:

Egypt 🇪🇬
Ethiopia 🇪🇹
Argentina 🇦🇷
UAE 🇦🇪
Iran 🇮🇷
Saudi Arabia 🇸🇦

(In light of this huge news, it would perhaps be wiser to rename the organization BRICS+, which has a nicer ring to it than BRICSEEAUIS. Lol)

This is the first time that BRICS add new member states since 2010, when South Africa officially acceded. The organization originally included only Brazil, Russia, India and China.

I'm sure the NYT will conjure some cheap op-ed claiming BRICS is irrelevant.

Anyway, here's the massive room where over 40 heads of state are meeting. #BRICSSummit2023

Putin: BRICS is not competing with or opposing itself to anyone. But it's also obvious that this emergence of a new world order will have fierce opponents who try to slow down the process, to contain the emergence of new, independent centers of development in the world.

BRICS now has 6 of the world's top 10 oil producers among its ranks (Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Brazil, UAE)

Putin at BRICS: "The countries of the so called "golden bullion" [...] try to substitute the world order by their 'rules based order', although no one has seen these rules."

Putin slams Western neocolonialism and debt traps imposed on developing countries. (Pretty obvious he means IMF/World Bank)

"African blood runs through our Latin American veins, and African blood also fertilized our libertarian and liberation struggles" #Bolivia #BRICSSummit2023

"I would like to honor two distinguished African patriots: Nelson Mandela, father of South African independence, and Patrice Lumumba, national hero and PM of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, overthrown and assassinated by the infamy of imperialist and colonialist interests"

"The expansion of the BRICS group is a new milestone in human history, because it allows nations to access international markets without the need to compromise their dignity, and without political conditioning, sanctions, or military threats" #Bolivia #BRICSSummit2023

"We need to reform the global order. "

"Africa pays the highest cost of capital than any other on the globe" #BRICS2023

"Over the years, China has stood in solidarity with fellow developing countries. China has been and will always be a member of developing countries." #BRICSSummit2023

"The BRICS are playing a fundamental role in the geopolitical dynamics [...]
The BRICS countries represent 31.7% of the global GDP, 30% of the territory, 43% of the population [...], 8.7% of the World's oil reserves and 25.2% of gas reserves." #BRICSza

"We need to make international tax cooperation more inclusive and effective so countries can support each other" #Argentina #BRICSza

"We are moving towards a multipolar world. And that is a positive thing, but multipolarity in itself is not enough to guarantee a peaceful or just global community." #BRICS

#BRICS family photo