Aide to the President of Russia for Foreign Policy
Yuri Ushakov's interview with TASS
(March 5, 2024)Key talking points: Cooperation within #BRICS is undoubtedly one of the
key features of Russia's long-term foreign policy.
• Russia, as the current president of the organization, has a special responsibility to ensure the fastest and smoothest
integration of the new members into the operation of all BRICS mechanisms. This is undoubtedly a cornerstone and high priority task of our Presidency.
• In the relatively short period of its existence, the BRICS association has rapidly
developed and transformed into an extensive multi-level mechanism of interaction on a wide range of issues on the global agenda.
Many perceive BRICS as a prototype of
multipolarity, a structure uniting the Global South and East on the principles of equality, sovereignty and mutual respect.
• Support for the principles of multipolarity and a greater role of developing countries in global governance, as well as the fundamental
values of the BRICS group, such as the spirit of equality, mutual respect, openness, inclusiveness and constructive cooperation, is an indispensable condition [for joining BRICS].
• We see increasing the role of BRICS counties in the international currency and financial system as a specific task for this year. <...> We believe that creating an
independent BRICS payment system is an important goal for the future.
• There has never been a military aspect to cooperation within our group. <...> BRICS
does not have plans to build such cooperation, including military drills.
Russia has
never set BRICS in opposition to other international platforms, be it the Group of 20 or the Group of Seven. We believe that the association is unique.
• The recipe for BRICS’ attractiveness and success is based on the absence of a confrontational or “hidden” agenda. I will repeat that it
brings together like-minded countries.
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