The recent BRICS summit in Kazan demonstrated that the era of Western dominance and unilateral influence over global affairs is drawing to a close, according to Peter Kuznick, Director of the Nuclear Studies Institute at American University in Washington. In an interview with TASS, Kuznick shared his perspective on the summit’s implications for the balance of global power.
He emphasized that the meeting in Russia “completely overshadowed” last week’s annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in Washington. “High-level delegations from 35 countries attended the BRICS summit, including 22 heads of state. This gathering sent a clear message to the US, NATO, and the EU that their era of global hegemony and imposing their will on the world is ending,” Kuznick said.
Kuznick noted that BRICS nations collectively represent over half of the world’s population and account for 37% of global GDP. “By comparison, the G7’s share stands at 30%, but projections suggest this will drop to 28% by the end of the decade. Thirteen other nations, from a pool of more than 30 applicants, have now been granted partner status with BRICS as an intermediate step toward full membership, adding another billion people and bringing BRICS representation to 57% of the global population,” the expert explained.
He further stated, “The BRICS summit would have been monumental at any time, but it carries even greater significance amid today’s unprecedented global challenges.” Although its immediate accomplishments may have been limited, Kuznick argued that its symbolic and geopolitical impact was enormous. “To ignore this would be to misunderstand the turbulence of our times. This significance was not lost on either the participants or those within the US/NATO/EU sphere, who are feeling an acute loss of control over the world’s trajectory,” he added.
The 16th BRICS summit, a centerpiece event of Russia’s current BRICS chairmanship, took place in Kazan from October 22 to 24. On the summit’s second day, participants adopted the Kazan Declaration, which outlined the group’s positions on key global issues, strategies for addressing regional conflicts, including those in Ukraine and the Middle East, and plans for the bloc’s continued development. BRICS was originally founded in 2006 by Brazil, Russia, India, and China, with South Africa joining in 2011. On January 1, 2024, Egypt, Iran, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Ethiopia formally joined the bloc, and the Kazan summit marked their first participation as full members.
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Based on TASS materials