Browsing: BRICS South Africa

• BRICS’ owned New Development Bank (NDB) was set up in 2015 by Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.
• The multilateral lender is planning to disburse about $5 billion in loans this year.
• The bank has an initial verified capital of $100 billion and a subscribed capital of $50 billion.

Emerging economies could give the superpowers a run in the lending sector with the the BRICS alliance planning to disburse about $5 billion in loans this year. This was announced by the bloc’s New Development Bank (NDB) Vice President Zhou Qiangwu on Tuesday, March 26.

As China, one of Africa’s closest trade …

• Egypt and Ethiopia will join BRICS alongside Saudi Arabia, Iran and Argentina starting January 1st, 2024.
• This takes membership into the bloc to three countries across the continent after South Africa.
• With the inclusion of Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE, three major oil-producing nations globally will become part of the bloc.

Egypt and Ethiopia alongside oil-rich Saudi Arabia, Iran and Argentina have received an invite to join the BRICS bloc, originally formed by Brazil, Russia, India, and China in 2009. The momentous shift could reshape the global economic landscape and will take effect 1st January 2024.

Notably, this expansion comes at a time when geopolitical tensions between the West and the East have been escalating. In particular, the inclusion of Iran and Saudi Arabia in the BRICS bloc indicates a strengthening of the China-Russia-led coalition that could challenge the influence of Western powers.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, who …

• South Africa says Russian President Vladimir Putin will skip planned BRICS summit in Johannesburg in August.
• Since he was charged with war crimes by the ICC in March for kidnapping children from Ukraine, Putin has avoided travelling.
• On July 15, Putin talked with Ramaphosa on BRICS and the status of the Black Sea grain deal.

South Africa says Russian President Vladimir Putin will skip planned BRICS summit in Johannesburg next month because of his ICC arrest warrant. South Africa, which was facing a major diplomatic challenge on whether to arrest Putin, says it has requested the Russian President to stay away from the summit.

Putin was charged with war crimes by the ICC in March for the kidnapping of children from Ukraine. Since then, Putin has been avoiding travelling to all nations that are party to the court’s treaty.

Following a “mutual agreement,” the office of South African President Cyril …