00:00As we continue with information of importance in a day in India, New Delhi
00:05prepares to host the 18th BRICS Summit on September 12th and the 13th, a meeting
00:09that aims to reinforce the block strategic role in building a multi-polar
00:13wall. For that reason we are going live to India, to New Delhi, where our special
00:18envoy, Junius Zoner, is there with all the latest information and the importance
00:22of this meeting that is set to begin in our time in terms of India time.
00:27Welcome Junius to From the South. Why can you tell us, what can we expect from this
00:31weekend's Leaders Summit of BRICS?
00:33Hello, good evening from New Delhi, capital of India, which has been preparing itself
00:39for this Summit of the Heads of State and Government of the BRICS Alliance.
00:46Officially, the Summit will start on Saturday, tomorrow, and will continue throughout
00:52tomorrow and on Sunday as well. And its main topic is, I would say, making global governance
01:01more inclusive and strengthening multilateralism. This is the official title of the closed session
01:09that the heads of state will have on Saturday here in the convention center behind me. And it's worth
01:18mentioning here that also the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres will participate in this summit.
01:25The idea is that international organizations such as the UN have to be reformed. Its Security Council
01:33has to be reformed so that the Global South has a better representation. But this idea not only refers
01:40to political institutions such as the UN, but also to financial institutions. Finance ministers and central
01:47bank governors of the BRICS countries have issued this week a joint statement calling for a reform of the
01:54International Monetary Fund. Their basic argument is that the Global South now has a bigger weight in the
02:01global economy. And this has to be reflected in institutions, in voting rights, inside institutions such as IMF or the
02:10World Trade Organization, WTO. So there is the continuing criticism from this Global South in regards to the political and
02:21economic
02:22economic representation of these countries in these institutions. Of course, the countries will also dedicate themselves to the leaders to
02:30regional problems. Above all, the war that the U.S. and Israel have started against Iran in West Asia, which
02:38has already caused tremendous supply chain effects and also energy shortages throughout South Asia as well. We receive reports, for
02:50instance, from Bangladesh,
02:51that there is limits of consumption of oil and electricity cuts. Other South Asian countries also report such situations. And
03:01this topic will be discussed tomorrow in the summit. But in that context, it's very, very important to emphasize one
03:12important factor, which is the participation of the Iranian President
03:17and Masoud PezheÅŸkiyan in the summit in the summit in the summit. This is a historic visit. It's the first
03:22time since seven years, since eight years, sorry, that an Iranian president has visited India. And PezheÅŸkiyan has arrived already
03:32on this Wednesday, on this Thursday, sorry, and has started bilateral meetings. And in the afternoon of this Friday, he
03:42participated in the BRICS business
03:44forum together with Russian President's forum together with Russian President Vladimir Putin together with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and
03:53together with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa. So PezheÅŸkiyan was present there.
03:59And he once again showed that Iran is not at all diplomatically isolated. And he finds quite a supporter in
04:11the Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has long been advocated that BRICS should more forcefully dedicate itself to West Asian
04:20issues, as well as generally the political multipolarity in the world.
04:25Speaking of the Russian President, who also has arrived, obviously on this Friday to India, he met with his counterpart,
04:34the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. And that was an important meeting as well. Both countries have already a strategic
04:41relationship since decades, one might say. But this meeting, I talked to Indian journalists, they said that both leaders agreed
04:52to deepen this relation even further.
04:55The relationship is important in the energy sector, because there is a lot of energy trade between Russia and India.
05:02But they, I was told that both leaders agreed to deepen it also into the sector of defence industry and
05:09weapons trade.
05:10So that would deepen this relationship even further. Speaking of bilateral relations, another important fact that will occur tomorrow needs
05:23to be emphasised. And this is the visit of the Chinese President Xi Jinping to the New Delhi to India.
05:30Another historic visit, another historic visit, the first time since seven years that the Chinese President visited India. Now, China
05:38and India as neighbours, they had quite a lot of problems in the past, border disputes they had. There was
05:45a lot of rivalry.
05:46But when we follow the Chinese sources, they have the expectation that this BRICS summit helps to overcome these disputes
05:55for good. There has been already a border agreement. But now the expectation in Beijing is that even further on,
06:02both countries approach themselves more and more economically in terms of trade, in terms of investment, and that this BRICS
06:10summit may turn out to be the occasion for it.
06:13That would be tremendously historic, obviously, given the size and the importance of these two countries. Both leaders will meet
06:21both in the joint session and bilaterally on tomorrow, Saturday, here in the BRICS summit.
06:31And another factor that needs to be emphasised. I spoke previously about economic policies, economic representation. Another topic that will
06:41be discussed on Saturday and more maybe on Sunday will be South-South economic integration.
06:46Now, there was much talk discussion in the last years about de-dollarisation. That is not so much on the
06:54agenda anymore. But still, the countries look for ways to substitute the dollar in their bilateral trade.
07:02So they look for strengthening the role of national currencies. They look for introducing possibly digital currencies to manage trade
07:13between themselves without having to use the dollar.
07:17So that will be another topic in Sunday's meeting, as well as other issues.
07:23There one needs to emphasise that the BRICS heads of state summit is, of course, the climax of a BRICS
07:32year under the Indian presidency.
07:34But it is not the only event. The Indian presidency today informed that until now, during the year, 350 different
07:43ministerial meetings have taken place in the BRICS alliance context regarding topics of economy, finance, but also education, sports, energy,
07:54obviously, agriculture and so on.
07:56So BRICS is more, much more than the pictures that we get presented on the heads of state.
08:03And another issue is also worth mentioning. Recently, the alliance has amplified, has gained new members, and this process is
08:12smoothly kind of continuing.
08:14Not new members are expected here, but we see a lot of presentation of countries that would like to become
08:22partners of the BRICS.
08:24For instance, for instance, from Uruguay, for instance, from Nigeria, from Uganda.
08:29A number of countries are represented here on the level of foreign ministers or vice presidents, showing clearly interest in
08:37getting closer ties to this BRICS alliance and the Global South.
08:41Thank you, Leslie said, and with both Wednesday, we will be open toourdough hockey volverry, Glover Jennie, which darf a
08:41good goal of listening to electoral at Worcester University-Ly Gaming, Oints and skull divergence,
08:43He's a great example.
08:43Thank you once every Saturday weekend...
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