South Africa lauded for its ‘political mastery’ at BRICS Summit

With the world’s eyes fixed on Sandton and the 15th BRICS Summit, it’s a good-news story with South Africa lauded for the role it played in securing six new members and pulling off a successful summit.

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Reports from Business Live, and the world’s media, have lauded President Cyril Ramaphosa and South Africa for its ‘political mastery’ in guiding the 15th BRICS Summit and expanding the bloc. Russian President Vladimir Putin, speaking virtually at the summit on Thursday, singled out President Ramaphosa.

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“I would like to thank our SA friends for their efforts during our joint work. I would like to point that President Ramaphosa showed unique political mastery as we negotiated all the issues, including the BRICS expansion,” said Putin.

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Similarly, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the three-day summit had achieved positive outcomes. “India has always fully supported the expansion of BRICS membership. The addition of new members will further strengthen BRICS as an organisation. It will give our shared efforts a new impact. I am pleased that our teams … agreed on the guiding principles, standards, criteria and procedures,” Modi said.

WHO ARE THE NEW MEMBERS?

From January 1 2024, BRICS will expand to 11 nations. Argentina, Ethiopia, Iran and Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt will join. This has prompted much speculation about a potential new name for the organisation.

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At the announcement of the six new members, President Ramaphosa said: “We value the interest of other countries in building a partnership with BRICS. We have tasked our foreign ministers to further develop the BRICS partner country model and a list of prospective partner countries and report by the next summit.”

WHAT ABOUT THE BRICS CURRENCY?

Despite much speculation, no concrete progress was made on a BRICS Currency. President Putin of Russia said the matter of a common currency would have to be discussed further in future. However, he did say that BRICS member states resolved to work on trading in local currencies rather than the US Dollar.

In alphabetical order, the BRICS nations from 2024 will now be comprised of:

• Argentina
• Brazil
• China
• Egypt
• Ethiopia
• India
• Iran
• Russia
• Saudi Arabia
• South Africa
• United Arab Emirates

Any scramble aficionados out there who can make the best 11-letter word jumble with A-B-C-E-E-I-I-R-S-S-U, please feel free to leave it in the comments section below.