Putin Calls for a “Multipolar World” as BRICS Expands, Challenging Western Dominance
by Emmitt Barry, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News)—Vladimir Putin closed out the BRICS summit in Russia by calling for the emergence of a “multipolar world,” intensifying his challenge to the Western-led, U.S.-dominated global order.
BRICS is rapidly expanding, an alliance of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. In January, Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia joined the group, while Turkey—marking the first NATO member to express interest—along with Azerbaijan and Malaysia, formally applied for membership. Pakistan has also shown interest in joining. Collectively, BRICS now represents roughly half of the world’s population and accounts for 35% of global output.
Facing unprecedented sanctions from the U.S. and its G-7 allies over the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Russia is striving to mitigate the economic impact. Putin urged BRICS nations to reduce reliance on the dollar as a global reserve currency by increasing trade in national currencies.
Russia is actively encouraging more nations to join a new payment system designed as an alternative to SWIFT, which the West has used to impose sanctions on Russian officials.
While Russia pushed an anti-Western agenda at the summit, Brazil, India, and South Africa promoted a more cooperative approach.
Their focus is on reforming organizations like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to better serve developing nations’ interests.
Speaking Wednesday at the formal opening of the leaders’ summit in Russia’s Kazan, Putin stated that BRICS is “especially in demand in the current conditions, when truly dramatic changes are taking place in the world, and the process of forming a multipolar world is underway.”
Later on Wednesday, Putin held separate meetings with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Iran’s Masoud Pezeshkian on the summit’s sidelines.
Erdogan said the two countries are addressing cross-border payment issues. U.S. sanctions and the threat of secondary sanctions have disrupted transactions with China, Turkey, and others trading with Russia.
Newly elected Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, addressing the BRICS summit, said, “Over more than three decades since the collapse of the bipolar system, it has become increasingly clear that, from the perspective of Western powers, peace, democracy, prosperity, and development can only be achieved through pathways defined by them.”
“This monopolistic outlook has led to increased violence, war, and terrorism on one hand, and the unprecedented use of economic and political sanctions on the other.”
In a pivotal move, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi used the summit to signal their hopes for a more harmonious relationship after decades of cross-border tensions. This gesture followed a recent agreement between China and India to resolve their four-year military standoff over the disputed Himalayan region.