By Gabi Khumalo.
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – President Cyril Ramaphosa has described the recently concluded 17th BRICS Summit as a resounding success, highlighting strengthened cooperation among member states and renewed commitment to building a more equitable global order.
Ramaphosa made the remarks during a media briefing following the conclusion of the Summit held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Monday.
The President commended Brazilian President, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, for organising the “excellent” summit and expressed appreciation for the invitation extended to the other outreach countries to be part of the summit.
The President noted the growing interest around the world, particularly the Global South, towards BRICS.
“We admitted a new member; Indonesia, and we also admitted new BRICS partner countries. There is a lot of interest in the Global South about being part of BRICS, which shows that BRICS continues to grow its voice, its reach, and by importance as well. [It] has become [a] fairly sizeable BRICS community, which already accounts for more than half of the population of the world.
“We also appreciated the fact that through BRICS we continue by respect [and] recognition, to respect the sovereignty of countries and their equalities, and that is an important consideration, as it leads to us cooperating on a number of areas,” the President said.
Through the declaration, a number of areas, ranging from the governance of the world to issues like technical education, were covered.
On global governance, the President said BRICS continues to respect the existence and the standing of the United Nations (UN) and called for the reform of the UN structures.
The President argued that it is not acceptable that countries like India and Brazil, are excluded from participating meaningfully, and that the African continent which has 1.3 billion people is not represented in the UN Security Council.
The summit also looked at the issue of climate change, calling for commitments to assist countries most affected by it, to be fulfilled.
“They should be assisted and supported through their transition to renewable energies and that countries that have made commitments particularly [in] the Global North, should live up to their commitments, with regards to ensuring that we address climate challenges that we are facing in the world,”Ramaphosa said.
Call for a permanent ceasefire
On security matters, BRICS condemned the attack on countries like Iran and reiterated a call for a ceasefire in Gaza.
The displacement and killings of people in Sudan was also a matter of concern for the summit which called for conflict on the African continent to be resolved through what the President called “African solutions”.
The President reiterated that BRICS is a community of countries that want to see progress in the world.
“BRICS Rio de Janeiro was very successful. We leave with very fulfilled hearts because it has added to many issues that we lead to the development of our world.
“There was also great appreciation and support for South Africa’s coming G20 and recognising the importance of the G20 that encompasses so many countries in the world. We were wished great success, and we were greatly supported,” the President said.