BRICS summit in Beijing: Putin calls on partners to cooperate

Brazil, India, China and South Africa don’t believe in the sanctions against their BRICS partner Russia. And so the summit of the five was used for heavy criticism of the West – especially from Putin and Xi.

The five BRICS countries should “take responsibility” and work for “equality and justice” in the world, said state and party leader Xi Jinping. Unilateral sanctions must be opposed.

Referring to the Western sanctions, Russian President Vladimir Putin called on the BRICS countries to cooperate more closely. He accused the West of selfishness and accused Western states of fueling global economic crises.

Warning of military alliances

Yesterday, China’s head of state indirectly sharply criticized NATO and the G7 countries: the war in Ukraine was a “wake-up call,” Xi said at a forum leading up to the summit. He warned against expanding military alliances and – literally – striving for “your own security at the expense of the security of other countries”. He described the sanctions imposed on Russia by the US and the EU as a “boomerang” and a “double-edged sword”.

Rejection of Western sanctions

The other BRICS countries also reject the sanctions against Moscow. China, Russia, Brazil, South Africa and India represent more than 40 percent of the world’s population and almost a quarter of the world’s gross domestic product.

For days, China’s state media have been trying to convey the image of a closed group of states presenting themselves as an alternative to the “West”. However, the political influence of the BRICS association is rather small. Since the beginning of the Ukraine war, however, India and China have been buying significantly more crude oil from Russia – and are benefiting from the lower prices due to the sanctions.