BRICS – the media get neither access to the participants nor information – what does that mean?

Some media representatives in the media center at Kazan airport complain that the organizers are starving them regarding information. Why is that?

Peter Hanseler / René Zittlau

Introduction

The media were made aware of two things. First, the security measures in the city, on the way to the airport and before entering the media center where the international media will gather are extremely strict. This has to do with the risk situation in this world. Nobody should complain about that – it’s unthinkable if something were to happen.

Secondly, the media are following the arrival of the heads of state at the airport live in the media center, as well as President Putin’s greeting of the leaders. That’s all there is so far.

The information officially released by the member states up to and including the latest events in Moscow is still the status quo this morning, October 23. We have presented and analyzed this current situation in our articles “BRICS – Facts and Figures” and “BRICS Currency – Payment and Trade Settlement System – Where are we heading? Analysis“.

Everywhere here in the Media Center the question arises why such a conservative information policy is pursued. Why hasn’t there been more information so far? Russia, as the host country, and probably the other BRICS members as well, have apparently agreed not to release any information to the media so far. This suggests that this summit is not about announcing decisions that have already been taken. It seems that the last important decisions will be taken at this summit.

Leading representatives and participating countries

The top representatives of the following countries have so far arrived in Kazan:

China, India, South Africa, Iran, UAE, Bolivia, Egypt, Turkey, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Congo, Azerbaijan, Mongolia, Palestine, Laos, Armenia, Ethiopia, Malaysia, Republic of Srpska, Kyrgyzstan, Vietnam, Tajikistan.

Who canceled their trip to the BRICS summit and why?

Brazilian President Lula had to cancel his trip due to a head injury. This is not for political reasons.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic announced on Serbian radio and television that the Republic would be represented at the BRICS Summit in Kazan by the Deputy Prime Minister. He himself will not be able to attend the event, as he had previously arranged for Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk to visit on the same day.
Vucic said that a trilateral meeting with Slovak and Hungarian Prime Ministers Robert Fico and Viktor Orban will take place in Komarno. Tusk, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will join them later.

Vucic also reported a conversation with Putin in which the Serbian leader said he would not come to Kazan.

Admission of new members

In one of our last articles, we listed which countries have submitted a formal application.

Which countries have expressed a keen interest in joining?

In our view, another major expansion of membership is unlikely this year. This was suggested by the statements of President Xi and President Putin.

BRICS is a very heterogeneous community based on multipolarity, which means that everyone – including the small players – is taken into account and the course of this community is not determined by a small circle of powerful individuals.

As a consequence, this also means that accepting new members requires a lot of time and work to ensure that we can work together efficiently and on an equal footing after integration.

Our assumption, which could of course be wrong, is that a partner status will be introduced which, depending on how it is structured, will give the new partners a member-like status in certain respects.

Saudi Arabia, however, is of the greatest interest to the BRICS. This oil giant, which accounts for almost 12% of global oil production and would increase the BRICS share of oil production from 31% to 43% (G7 22%), joined BRICS in August 2023 but has not yet signed up. Saudi Arabia is apparently under pressure from the US not to join. Saudi Arabia has huge investments in the US and UK and is probably afraid of losing these investments if it joins. We have reported on this. We expect that the Chinese and Russians in particular will go to great lengths to make this accession possible.

Trade settlement mechanism

We believe that the biggest organizational, political and economic challenge facing BRICS at this stage of its development is the creation of a new payment mechanism.

We have discussed this in detail in our article “BRICS Currency – Payment and Trade Settlement System – Where Are We Going? Analysis“. There we mainly excluded the solutions that are being circulated in the alternative media.

We assume that this – if announced – will have the greatest consequences for the world – including the West.

BRICS – the media get neither access to the participants nor information – what does that mean?

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