How shocking! How humiliating! But more to the point . . . how come?

I’m referring to the economic conference that was held on Friday, October 11th, as the regular lead-in to the BRICS summit scheduled for October 22-24. And people did attend . . . just not the people who were expected. Not the top people, but the second-stringers.

Ordinarily, these pre-summit sessions are attended by the finance ministers and central bank heads from the member nations. But this year, only the finance ministers from Egypt and the United Arab Emirates and the head of Iran’s central bank were present when Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov called for the creation of an alternative to what he called the Western-dominated global financial system. [Gleb Bryanski, Reuters, October 11, 2024.]

The remaining members, including China, India and South Africa, instead sent deputies or more junior officials. The Saudi delegation was not represented at all. And is it likely to have been coincidental that this occurred the day after the Kremlin accused the West of pressuring countries not to attend the BRICS summit?

The economic conference is central to the agenda of the summit itself, particularly since Russia — in the wake of Western sanctions over its war in Ukraine — has been wooing its BRICS partners with various proposed initiatives, including something they call the BRICS Bridge international payment system. [Id.]

Siluanov told the officials present that “The creation of a cross-border payment initiative is our main task.” [Id.] He also spoke of the creation of a BRICS clearing center, a rating agency, a reinsurance company, and a commodities exchange. [Id.]

All of these initiatives are of particular importance at the present time to Russia, which is experiencing delays in its international transactions, as some of its trading partners are concerned about possible punitive actions from the West. [Id.] Could these same concerns have kept the top economic officials of those countries from attending Friday’s conference? And if so, what does this say to Russia in terms of the backing it can expect from its fellow BRICS members in moving forward with his proposals?

The forthcoming summit in Kazan on October 22-24 will be of special significance for Putin. His foreign policy aide, Yuri Ushakov, has said that nine of the ten member states will send their leaders, but that Saudi Arabia — which missed the economic conference — will send its Foreign Minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud.

This should be interesting.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
10/14/24