The 2023 BRICS summit was the fifteenth annual
BRICS summit, an international relations conference attended by the heads of state or heads of government of the five member states:
Brazil,
Russia,
India,
China, and
South Africa.[2][3] South African President
Cyril Ramaphosa also invited the leaders of 67 countries to the summit.[4]
Summit Events
BRICS Expansion
Several countries have expressed interest in joining the BRICS group.[5] At the summit, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that
Argentina,
Egypt,
Ethiopia,
Iran,
Saudi Arabia, and the
United Arab Emirates have been invited to join the bloc. Full membership will take effect on 1 January 2024.[6][7]
Statement about BRICS Currency
In the "
August Statement" , the bloc concluded, “Such a currency increases our payment options and reduces our vulnerabilities.” Moreover, “it presents a clear path away from the greenback throughout their trade dealings.” [8]
In May 2023, the South African government, led by the
African National Congress (ANC),[43] granted all invited leaders
diplomatic immunity. It remained unclear at the time whether this would prevent Putin from being arrested if he attended. According to the
Department of International Relations and Cooperation, it was standard practice in South Africa to confer such immunity to attendees of international conferences held in the country.[3]
By early June 2023, moving the summit to China was being considered to avoid the issue.[44] In mid-July 2023,
Vladimir Putin announced that he would not attend the summit "by mutual agreement" and would instead be sending Foreign Minister
Sergei Lavrov.[45]
Narendra Modi's refusal to disembark plane
On 22 August 2023, Daily Maverick reported that India's Prime Minister
Narendra Modi refused to get off his plane until the deputy president of South Africa was dispatched to welcome him[46][47][48] instead of the government cabinet minister that was present to conduct the airport welcome.[48] The South African government denied that Modi had refused to disembark his plane, saying that Ramaphosa was unable to meet Modi at the airport due to scheduling difficulties, and adding that it was common for government ministers to welcome visiting heads of state.[49]
Following the publication of the story the Daily Maverick experienced a sustained
DDOS attack from India[47][50] which forced it to temporarily block access to the site from India.[51] The editor-in-chief of the Daily Maverick speculated that the reason for the DDOS attack was to prevent people in India from reading the article.[50]
Nonattendance by Xi Jinping
Despite meeting with host
Cyril Ramaphosa earlier in the day and attending the BRICS dinner afterward, Chinese President
Xi Jinping unexpectedly did not attend the BRICS business forum where he had been scheduled to speak and instead his speech was read out by
Minister of Commerce of ChinaWang Wentao.[52][20]