Adedapo Adesanya
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Vice President, Mr Kashim Shettima, has departed Abuja for Johannesburg, South Africa, to represent President Bola Tinubu at the 15th BRICS Summit of Heads of State and Government.
BRICS, an acronym for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, is a group of five major emerging and developing economies.
In a statement released on Monday by Mr Olusola Abiola, the Director of Information in the Office of the Vice President, it was stated that the VP would be joining other business and political leaders across the world at the summit scheduled for the Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg from August 22 to 24.
Notable leaders expected to attend the event include South African President, Mr Cyril Ramaphosa; President Xi Jinping of China; Brazil’s President, Luiz Lula da Silva and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Seventy-three dignitaries, including the Secretary-General of the United Nations, the chairperson of the African Union Commission and the President of the New Development Bank, have also been invited.
The summit is expected to deliberate on issues of trade and investment facilitation, sustainable development, innovation, and global governance reform.
It will also continue its outreach to Leaders from Africa and the global South as it focuses on global geopolitics, trade and infrastructure development.
The BRICS group accounts for more than 42 per cent of the world population, 30 per cent of the world’s territory, 23 per cent of the global economy and 18 per cent of global trade. One of its founding values is a shared commitment to restructuring the global political, economic and financial architecture to be fair, balanced and representative, resting on pillars of multilateralism and international law.
The Vice President is accompanied on the trip by some senior government officials, and he is expected back in the country at the end of the week.
The BRIC concept was created by the Goldman Sachs economist Jim O’Neill and the “S” was added after South Africa joined the group in 2010.
The first meeting of the group began in St Petersburg in 2005. It was simply referred to as RIC, which stood for Russia, India and China. Then, Brazil and, subsequently, South Africa joined later, which is why it is now popularly called BRICS. As rotating chair, South Africa first held the summit in 2013 in Durban, the second in July 2018 and now the third in August 2023.
More countries have become interested in joining the group: Afghanistan, Algeria, Argentina, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sudan, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, Uruguay, Venezuela, Zimbabwe.
It is not immediately clear if Nigeria will join the group, but BRICS has positioned itself as an alternative organisation for the Global South against the stronghold of the United States and Europe, especially towards issues affecting the developing or the least developed nations.
