00:00Leaders of the BRICS nations have begun their summit in Brazil by condemning U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran
00:05and calling on Israel to withdraw troops from the Gaza Strip.
00:08Our executive editor for economics and government in EMEA, Anne Latam, Flavia Cross-Jackson, joins us now from Rio de Janeiro.
00:15So, Flavia, tell us about sort of the headline discussions that are taking place.
00:20The Mitzvot is, of course, an interesting backdrop in terms of some of these key players from Iran, from Russia, from China,
00:28actually not being there at this gathering.
00:31Yeah, it's quite an unusual BRICS in many ways, right, because two of the big acronyms in that grouping are not here.
00:41President Xi is not here and, of course, Putin isn't here either.
00:44So that makes it, in a way, quite an unusual, understated affair.
00:48And then, of course, you have in the form of Lula a very punchy host.
00:53He's obviously here, very warm, being with Modi, who's the star of the show, really.
00:57And he's going to be treated to a state visit later.
01:01But Lula really marches to the beat of his own drum.
01:03He's not afraid to say controversial things.
01:06And, of course, in the backdrop, you have the tariffs that are about to come down.
01:10And certainly tomorrow we'll see some of these deals if they come into shape, especially the one with India.
01:16We'll be able to get some real-life reactions here in Rio.
01:19And, of course, on the geopolitics, the BRICS have really stood apart as presenting themselves as a sort of alternative to the U.S. order and, ironically, as defenders of multilateral institutions.
01:35So it's quite interesting, really, to sort of see in the family picture Russian Iran relegated to the margins and also the kind of language that they're using to condemn some of the actions in the Middle East.
01:46Yeah, it will really not play well for President Trump that, of course, is meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday at the White House.
01:56No, of course not.
01:58And, I mean, I think what's been very interesting to see is that Lula and Trump could not be further apart.
02:03But somewhat unusually, Trump has not picked a fight with Lula and vice versa.
02:09Certainly Brazil hasn't been caught in the crosshairs of the trade war.
02:12And Lula himself has said some pretty contrarian things about Israel that, in the past, certainly when he said in the G20 context, drew a lot of condemnation.
02:23But here he's very much more with like-minded individuals.
02:27It's obviously the G20.
02:28The BRICS aspires to be very much like the G20, but hasn't quite lived up to the promise, even though it represents 49 percent of the population and has certainly doubled in size.
02:38But one thing, for example, that we noticed is that for like two years ago, when Saudi Arabia and several other countries were invited, essentially doubling the size of the BRICS to 11,
02:50countries like Saudi Arabia specifically are still equivocating and not entirely sure that this is a club that they want to be a member of.
02:58Chinese Premier Li Chang saying that BRICS countries should champion the peaceful resolution of international disputes.
03:07How well has Beijing really driven the BRICS nations in order to gain more global clout, not to mention expand the grouping as well?
03:19Well, I mean, obviously those are interesting words, but the fact that they're not spoken by Xi in this setting,
03:23in a way kind of doesn't pack as much of a punch.
03:27And I think suddenly there's a sort of perception that China really maintains always the same position.
03:32It doesn't really want to tip the balance in any specific way.
03:36When it's come to the conflict in Ukraine, it's very much given backing to Russia.
03:42And when it comes to Iran, another ally in the Middle East, it hasn't actually done very much to help that ally.
03:47So those positions are very much consistent with how China has sort of essentially positioned itself geopolitically.
03:55It uses words, but it doesn't really follow through with actions.
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