New Delhi: The five leaders of the BRICS bloc of emerging economies agreed on the need to expand the group, even as there remained a gap in the use of national currencies for intra-trade.The BRICS summit entered high gear on Wednesday, August 23, with the three presidents, one prime minister and a foreign minister holding their first in-person summit in Johannesburg.India, which had been seen to be the most sceptical among the five members on the expansion, gave its support to the proposal in principle. “India fully supports the expansion of the BRICS membership. And welcomes moving forward with consensus in this,” said Modi at the open plenary meeting.The expansion issue had been discussed at the leaders’ retreat on Tuesday evening. Indian official sources had said that there was “significant development”, claiming that India took the “lead in forging consensus on membership criteria and selection of new members”.Long-standing proponents of the expansion, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin, were quick to formally suggest a new moniker.“We need to make good use of the BRICS Plus co-operation format and accelerate the expansion process to bring more countries into the family, to pool our strengths and wisdom to make global governance more just and equitable,” said Xi.The BRICS chair, President Cyril Ramaphosa, affirmed that there was universal consensus on expanding the group.“Yes, President Xi, you are in full support of the expansion of BRICS as has been articulated by all members that we stand at the cusp of expanding the BRICS family because it is through this expansion that we will be able to have a much stronger BRICS in these turbulent times,” said Ramaphosa.“We await the decision that will be taken by the leaders in this regard as we go on with our summit,” he added.While the BRICS leaders had agreed that there would be an expansion, it is not clear if there was any agreement on the membership criteria – or if that has been left for future negotiations.Indian sources were clear that they would like to shape the membership criteria so that India’s “Strategic Partners” will be incorporated as new members.Ahead of the summit, South Africa had announced that around 22 countries had formally applied for membership of BRICS. The motivations of the countries ranged from getting preferred access to emerging markets to getting loans from BRICS’ New Development Bank.While Russian President Vladimir Putin didn’t attend the summit in person, he gave a speech through a video link. He took potshots at the West to justify the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. “Russia decided to support people that fight for their culture, for their traditions, for their language, and for their future,” he said.Besides Putin, the leaders from South Africa, Brazil and China also referred to the Ukraine conflict and the need to find a peaceful solution at the earliest. Modi didn’t raise Ukraine, at least in his public remarks.Putin skipped the South Africa summit as otherwise Pretoria would have been obligated to arrest him based on an International Criminal Court warrant related to accusations of war crimes in Ukraine.The Russian president also offered to host the next summit in Kazan.Questions about Putin’s voiceMedia reports highlighted the fact that the version of Putin’s video address that was played in Johannesburg was “dubbed by a voice actor who made the Kremlin chief sound like either a Hollywood villain, 1970s soul star Barry White, or a gangster being interviewed for a TV program whose voice had been dubbed to protect his identity”.According to Politico, the original version of the video message showed Putin coughing several times as he began to read a prepared text. Russia’s domestic state news agency RIA said: “Putin addressed the BRICS business council via video link. Not in his own voice.”Russian president Vladmir Putin address the BRICS plenary session in Johannesburg, South Africa via a video message on August 23, 2023. Photo: Screengrab via KremlinNo headway on de-dollarisationMeanwhile, the pet proposal of Russia and China for de-dollarisation – or use of local currencies in intra-BRICS trade – doesn’t seem to have made much heady.The South African president lamented that international payment gateways were being weaponised in geo-political disputes. He was referring to the West cutting off Russia from international payment systems like SWIFT after the invasion of Ukraine.“We will continue discussions on practical measures to facilitate trade and investment flows through the increased use of local currencies. This is a matter [on which] we believe further discussions need to take place, particularly among our finance ministers,” said Ramaphosa.The Chinese president called for the BRICS Bank to be used to leverage change in the international financial system. “We need to leverage the role of the New Development Bank, push forward reform of the international financial and monetary systems and increase the representation and voice of developing countries,” he said.Outreach dinnerThe day ended with a dinner hosted by South Africa for all the heads of state who had travelled from across the African continent and beyond. While South Africa had invited over 60 countries, the final tally was around 40 leaders in Johannesburg. Many of them were also visiting to participate in the China-Africa forum, which is again being organised by South Africa.On Thursday, Modi will attend two sessions of the BRICS Africa outreach and BRICS plus dialogue. In between, there is a window of about four hours for the Indian prime minister to have a series of bilateral meetings.It is still not known whether Modi will meet with Xi in a separate bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the summit. Modi is scheduled to leave South Africa on Thursday night.
