Leaders from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa are meeting in Johannesburg for the BRICS summit. They are considering expanding the alliance, which already accounts for 40 percent of the world's population, and a quarter of its gross domestic product (GDP). But not everyone is on board with the expansion.

Johannesburg

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Putin declines visiting South Africa for key summit

While the leaders of Brazil, India, China and South Africa will attend the 15th BRICS summit in Johannesburg in person, Russian President Vladimir Putin will participate virtually. It follows an international criminal court warrant for the Russian leader's arrest related to alleged war crimes in Ukraine. Finding itself in a legal bind, the South African government announced last month Putin would not attend. Instead, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will take his place. Plans to expand the bloc are expected to be high on the agenda. At least 23 countries, including Iran and Argentina, have formally applied to join BRICS. While larger economies, China and Russia, support the move, there's some disagreement. I think that has got to do with the incomes of the BRICS countries themselves, because South Africa being the smallest economy in BRICS has often been seen as an appendage, so to say, and the fact that South Africa's admission to the BRICS in 2008 was largely seen as China's agenda, not a consensus by all the BRICS countries. So I think that is why India would be very much equivocal. But the consensus amongst all, in the majority of the BRICS countries, is that yes, an expansion is really timely. Member states represent 40% of the world's population, and their combined GDP accounts for almost a third of the global economy. The summit's theme is BRICS and Africa, highlighting the potential for the bloc to build relations on a continent that's increasingly becoming a stage for competition between world powers. It's also an opportunity for BRICS members to present themselves as alternative development partners to Western nations. The bloc aims to better represent developing nations by increasing industrialization and infrastructure development in Africa, and ultimately expanding trade and investment. Being part of BRICS, we are close to a conversation with the economies that are going to drive global growth, and therein, obviously, shortens the distance between those markets and African products. So the association is important that we stay within it, and obviously now that we are in the bloc, it's an opportunity for us to highlight African services, African goods, African trade patterns, and find a way of getting our products and our goods and services into these big markets. The gathering is likely to continue discussions about a new currency to rival the dominance of the US dollar. China will want to strengthen geopolitical ties at a time of tensions with the US, while for Russia, the bloc is a way of overcoming global isolation caused by its war in Ukraine. All partners will be hoping this summit ends with concrete resolutions. Famida Muller, Al Jazeera, Johannesburg.

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