Plenary Session of the XVI BRICS Summit

The Plenary Session of the XVI BRICS Summit lasted well over three hours, took a break, then continued in a working breakfast format. The following translated transcript unfortunately only contains President Putin’s words. The video and untranslated transcript are here. We’ve read what Putin has to say about the global situation and BRICS generally on many occasions, and I’m chagrined not to provide even a sampling of what was said by the many other national leaders that are never heard from yet spoke at this event. Yes, a press conference was held later and will be the focus of the next article. Well, it is what it is.

Plenary Session of the XVI BRICS Summit in the "Outreach"/"BRICS Plus" Format

Vladimir Putin: Dear Heads of State, Ladies and gentlemen, Dear friends!

I am glad to welcome you all to the Outreach / BRICS Plus meeting. This expanded format has proven itself well and provides an opportunity for direct and open dialogue between members of the association and our friends and partners.

Let me remind you that last year the heads of many African States and heads of key regional organizations were invited to the meetings in Johannesburg. This time, the Russian presidency invited Russia's closest neighbors, friendly countries with which we share a common history of living in a single state. There are also heads of States that are interested in establishing a closer partnership with BRICS and are even considering the possibility of membership in the association in the future, as well as countries that currently head leading multilateral structures. In other words, the countries of Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America are represented at the common table.

According to the proposed agenda, we will consider the most exciting issues for the world community. These include sustainable development, poverty eradication, climate change adaptation, technology and knowledge sharing, and the fight against terrorism and cross-border crime.

We will pay special attention to the peaceful settlement of conflicts, including, of course, the escalating situation in the Middle East.

It is extremely important for BRICS members to discuss all these topics with like-minded people from the Global South and East. All our states share similar aspirations, values, and a vision of a new democratic world order that reflects all cultural and civilizational diversity. We are convinced that such a world order should be based on universal principles of respect for the legitimate interests and sovereign choice of countries and peoples, respect for international law and a commitment to mutually beneficial and honest cooperation.

The transition to a fairer world order is not easy. Its development is hindered by forces that are used to thinking and acting in the logic of dominating anything and everything. Behind the screen of the rules-based order imposed on the world, there are attempts to contain growing competitors, independent, uncontrolled development of the countries of Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

Illegal unilateral sanctions, outright protectionism, manipulation of currency and stock markets, interference in internal affairs under the slogan of concern for democracy and human rights, and the fight against climate change are being used.

Such, frankly speaking, unhealthy methods and approaches lead both to the emergence of new conflicts and to the aggravation of old contradictions. This undermines regional and global strategic stability, violates the principles of equal and indivisible security, and encourages inter-State internecine strife.

One example of this is Ukraine, which is being used to create critical threats to Russia's security, while ignoring our vital interests, just concerns, and violations of the rights of Russian-speaking people. And now they do not hide the goal of inflicting a strategic defeat on our country at all. I will directly say that these are illusory calculations that can only be made by those who do not know the history of Russia, do not take into account the unity, strength of spirit and unity of its people forged over the centuries.

But, as agreed, the situation in the Middle East will be among the main topics of our discussion. It is also a cause for concern. And here exactly what I was talking about is taking place-this is the aggravation of an old conflict that has not been extinguished for decades.

The latest round of the Palestinian-Israeli confrontation has become, perhaps, one of the bloodiest in a long series of clashes. As a result of the fighting in the Gaza Strip, more than 40,000 people have already been killed, most of them civilians. But at the same time, I want to emphasize that we have always opposed any terrorist manifestations.

The fighting that began in Gaza a year ago has now spread to Lebanon. Other countries in the region were also affected. The degree of confrontation between Israel and Iran has sharply increased. All this is like a chain reaction and puts the entire Middle East on the brink of full-scale war.

The humanitarian situation is also rapidly deteriorating. The number of refugees and internally displaced persons has already exceeded one and a half million people. Huge damage has been done to infrastructure and residential buildings, schools, hospitals, social facilities, and destruction continues.

Russia, of course, has a lot of very important and acute issues that we need to solve for ourselves, and we are doing this and will continue to do so. But at the same time, we have always sought to make a significant contribution to the stabilization of the Middle East. Therefore, from the very beginning of the escalation, together with BRICS members and other partners, we actively engaged in efforts to resolve the conflict. As you may remember, there was even an emergency video session of our association in November 2023.

An urgent task, of course, is to launch a comprehensive political process to resolve the Middle East problem in its entirety. It is necessary to stop the violence, provide vital assistance to the victims, and ease their suffering. The settlement itself must be achieved on a generally recognized international legal basis, which directly provides for the creation of an independent Palestinian State, peacefully coexisting with Israel.

Correcting historical injustices against the Palestinian people can guarantee peace in the Middle East. Until this issue is resolved, the vicious cycle of violence cannot be broken. People will continue to live in an atmosphere of permanent crisis with inevitable relapses of large-scale violence.

I would like to repeat once again: the key requirement for restoring peace and stability in the Palestinian territories is the implementation of the two-State formula approved by the UN Security Council and General Assembly resolutions.

Turning to the assessment of the overall situation in the world, I would like to emphasize that the States represented here have really huge opportunities and resources, have high authority on the world stage, and are actively using all this in order to really contribute to ensuring global security and promoting sustainable development processes in the world.

Many of our countries have put forward very useful initiatives in this context. For its part, Russia has come up with the idea of creating a system of equal and indivisible security in Eurasia on an inclusive and non-discriminatory basis. It is a matter of joint efforts to reliably guarantee genuine stability and create conditions for the peaceful development of all States and peoples on the continent.

And of course, it is symbolic that our meeting today is being held on the United Nations day. It was on October 24, 1945 that the UN Charter came into force, the principles of which have been the foundation of interstate relations and international law for almost eight decades.

The World Organization should continue to play a central role in maintaining peace and security and promoting sustainable and sustained growth. At the same time, we consider it important for the further effective functioning of the UN to adapt its structure to the realities of the twenty-first century, to expand the representation of Asian, African and Latin American countries in the Security Council and other key bodies, including those whose leaders are present in this Hall.

Reform of UN development institutions and global financial structures is also long overdue. The weight of developing countries in the global economy has changed dramatically in recent decades. But this, in particular, has not been adequately reflected in the governance systems of the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and other multilateral development banks.

The founding Fathers of the United Nations saw its purpose as a center for coordinating the actions of nations. Because together and collectively, we can truly respond to global challenges and threats, solve such tasks as combating terrorism, drug trafficking, corruption, organized crime, including the criminal use of information technologies, and, of course, ensure sustainable economic growth for the benefit of universal development and prosperity.

It is obvious that the next wave of global economic recovery is emerging in the world-majority countries. Therefore, it is time to discuss the idea of creating your own platform to unlock the potential of our growing economies. Its goal is to increase investment flows to the BRICS countries, the Global South and the East, and to focus on investing in large infrastructure and technology projects.

It is important to build alternative, reliable and free from any dictates of multilateral financial mechanisms, production and logistics chains, to establish the exchange of technologies and advanced knowledge, to develop and increase the capacity of new international transport corridors.

Russia works together with its partners on such globally significant routes as the North-South and the Northern Sea Route, and we invite all interested countries to cooperate.

As we are well aware, climate plays a special role in the theme of sustainable development. It is logical that the international climate agenda should be aimed at developing practical solutions to the problem of global warming. And here it is important to ensure that countries in the Global South and East have access to finance and technology, and help them adapt to climate change.

I would like to emphasize that Russia is striving to actively participate in the global climate process. Our country is one of the leaders in terms of its contribution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and its energy balance is one of the greenest in the world. The share of environmentally friendly gas, nuclear, and hydro generation is 85 percent. Russia is home to more than 20 percent of the world's forests, which absorb greenhouse gases and help slow global warming.

Russia also makes a significant contribution to ensuring global food and energy security. Over the past year alone, we have exported more than 100 million tons of agricultural products, have become leaders in grain supplies, and hold leading positions in the energy market.

As part of BRICS, we initiated the creation of a grain exchange. We expect that such a mechanism will contribute to the establishment of a transparent and immune to external risks regime of trade in agricultural products both between the members of the association and with our other partners.

Summing up, I would like to note once again that Russia, like all BRICS countries, is open to working together with the countries of the Global South and East to promote inclusive and sustainable development in order to build a better world. A world that takes into account the views and interests of every nation, respects their right to sovereign development, their identity, and recognizes the absolute value of all cultures, traditions, and religions without exception.

I hope that today's discussion will be constructive and thorough and will contribute to resolving topical issues on the regional and global agenda.

Thank you for your attention and I am pleased to give the floor to the President of the People's Republic of China, Mr. Xi Jinping.

You are welcome.

<Remarks by other participants.>

Vladimir Putin: Mr. Secretary-General [of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres] said that we should all live as one big family.

Dear Mr. Secretary General, this is how we live. In families, unfortunately, there are often quarrels, scandals, division of property, and sometimes it comes to fights. The goal of BRICS is to create the necessary mechanisms for interaction and create a favorable atmosphere in the common home. We are doing this, and we will do it. Including in close coordination with the United Nations.

Thank you very much. [My Emphasis]

I note that Xinhua has published an English transcript of Xi Jinping’s Plenary Session remarks which follows in full:

Your Excellency President Vladimir Putin,

Colleagues,

I would like to thank President Putin and the Russian government for putting together this "BRICS Plus" leaders' dialogue, and warmly welcome all the leaders joining us today. It is a great pleasure to see old and new friends in Kazan.

The collective rise of the Global South is a distinctive feature of the great transformation across the world. Global South countries marching together toward modernization is monumental in world history and unprecedented in human civilization. At the same time, peace and development still faces severe challenges, and the road to prosperity for the Global South will not be straight. Standing at the forefront of the Global South, we should use our collective wisdom and strength, and stand up to our responsibility for building a community with a shared future for mankind.

-- We should uphold peace and strive for common security. We should come forward together to form a stabilizing force for peace. We should strengthen global security governance and explore solutions to address both symptoms and roots of hotspot issues. Many parties have warmly responded to my Global Security Initiative. Under the Initiative, we have made prominent progress in maintaining regional stability and in many other areas. China and Brazil jointly issued the six-point consensus, and launched the group of Friends for Peace on the Ukraine crisis together with other Global South countries. We should promote early deescalation to pave the way for political settlement. Last July, Palestinian factions reconciled with each other in Beijing, marking a key step toward peace in the Middle East. We should continue to promote comprehensive ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and revive the two-State solution. We must stop the flames of war from spreading in Lebanon and end the miserable sufferings in Palestine and Lebanon.

-- We should reinvigorate development and strive for common prosperity. The Global South emerges for development and prospers through development. We should make ourselves the main driving force for common development. We should play an active and leading role in the global economic governance reform, and make development the core of international economic and trade agenda. Since its introduction three years ago, the Global Development Initiative has helped make available nearly US$20 billion of development fund and launch more than 1,100 projects. And recently the Global Alliance on Artificial Intelligence for Industry and Manufacturing Center of Excellence has been established in Shanghai. China will also build a World Smart Customs Community Portal and a BRICS Customs Center of Excellence. We welcome active participation by all countries.

-- We should promote together development of all civilizations and strive for harmony among them. Diversity of civilization is the innate quality of the world. We should be advocates for exchanges among civilizations. We should enhance communication and dialogue, and support each other in taking the path to modernization suited to our respective national conditions. The Global Civilization Initiative I proposed is exactly for the purpose of building a garden of world civilizations in which we can share and admire the beauty of each civilization. China will coordinate with others to form a Global South Think Tanks Alliance to promote people-to-people exchanges and experience-sharing in governance.

Colleagues,

The Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China made systemic plans for further deepening reform comprehensively to advance Chinese modernization. This will provide more opportunities for the world. Last month, we held in Beijing a successful summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation and announced ten partnership actions for China and Africa to jointly advance modernization. This will instill new energy for the Global South on its way toward modernization.

No matter how the international landscape evolves, we in China will always keep the Global South in our heart and maintain our roots in the Global South. We support more Global South countries in joining the cause of BRICS as full members, partner countries or in the "BRICS Plus" format so that we can combine the great strength of the Global South to build together a community with a shared future for mankind.

Thank you! [My Emphasis]

I understand the need for tact when conducting dialog over sensitive issues, but I’m forced to condemn what increasingly appears to be willful blindness to the genuine reality of what’s happening in Palestine where the Zionist regime of Occupied Palestine has very often publicly announced its intention of destroying all Palestinians and now all Lebanese and Syrians in their announced attempt to create Greater Judea—from the Mediterranean Sea to the Indian Ocean. Both Putin and Xi announced their blindness yet again to an international audience that must have greatly pleased the Genocidal Zionists. As with the Nazis before and today within Ukraine, today’s Zionists are NOT members of the “Human Family;” their actions and intentions are well outside those considered normal human behavior. The lack of calling out the utter inadmissibility of such behavior at every opportunity essentially condones it allowing people not to confront it so they can turn to look the other way and thus put it out-of-sight-out-of-mind. The great mass of the world swallowed the terrorism trope and very few put forth the truth that Al-Aqsa Flood was a LEGAL attack on the occupation by Palestinians striving for their freedom from decades of oppression and ethnic cleansing.

I shouldn’t need to write the above paragraph, but the actions of BRICS leaders demand that I do so. They appear blind to the fact that what’s destroying Palestinians is the same force that strives to keep Global Majority development and the improving of global relations at bay—that keeps the world from being able to enjoy the fruits of peace.

Hitler’s Nazi plan wasn’t going to be deterred by dialog; force had to be used to halt its inhuman behavior. The same is true with today’s Nazis, Zionists, and their sponsors—they do not entertain dialog as they know exactly what they want to accomplish isn’t what the vast majority of Humanity desires. No dialog is going to get them to halt their inhuman behavior. Russian and Chinese pride themselves on being very good students of history, yet they both overlook WW2’s several lessons—First, that force and sacrifice were required and second that Nazism was allowed to live on, protected and promoted by the Outlaw US Empire, which is why we have today’s conflicts. Stomping the Zionists in West Asia and the Ukraine Nazis ought to tell the Outlaw US Empire its aspirations at total global control can never be attained so it will back off before it too gets stomped.

Yes, it’s nice and very high sounding that BRICS “isn’t aimed at anyone.” However, if hegemony isn’t confronted and destroyed, it will continue to plague Humanity, and IMO that isn’t what Humanity wants. Someone once said Peace comes with a Price. Over the last 140 years, over 150 Million people have paid that price. How many more millions as Greg Lake asked will “they put to sleep”?

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