The 16th BRICS Summit kicked off in Kazan, Russia, today, with the participation of about 40 countries, and the main theme of the summit is ‘Strengthening Multilateralism for Fair Global Development and Security.’ The summit’s theme is ‘Strengthening Multilateralism for Fair Global Development and Security.’

This is the first summit after 5 new countries joined the BRICS group in 2024, and the 3-day summit will last until next Thursday (24 October 2024).
The summit will be attended by 38 countries, of which 24 countries will be represented by their leaders, 8 countries will be represented by high-level officials, and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is scheduled to participate in the summit.
Russia is chairing the BRICS group this year and during this period Moscow has identified 3 priorities: Politics and security, economic and financial cooperation, and humanitarian and cultural exchanges, and has organised more than 200 political, economic and social events to promote the implementation of further BRICS cooperation.

One of the main topics to be discussed at the summit is the creation of a BRICS digital payments platform known as BRICS Bridge to break the Western financial hegemony.
During the summit, Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold bilateral meetings with most of the participating leaders, including with Chinese President Xi Jingping, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, and Iranian President Masoud Bazhkian, where the comprehensive strategic partnership between Moscow and Tehran is set to be discussed.

BRICS is an international group created in 2006, initially comprising Russia, Brazil, India and China, with South Africa joining the group in 2011.
At the beginning of 2024, five new countries joined the group.