23 Aug 2023, Juba, SOUTH SUDAN – President Salva Kiir was in South Africa on Wednesday to participate in the 15th BRICS Summit, which is being held in Johannesburg between 22-24 August 2023.
The gathering is organized under the theme: BRICS and Africa: Partnership for Mutually Accelerated Growth, Sustainable Development, and Inclusive Multilateralism.
Comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, BRICS countries represent some of the developing world’s most important economies.
“President Kiir has been officially invited to participate in the meeting, which discusses crucial economic matters in the global South”, Presidential Affairs Minister, Hon. Barnaba Marial Bennjamin, told reporters shortly before the South Sudanese delegation departed.
President Kiir joins leaders from the world’s emerging economies at the Johannesburg summit, including China’s President Xi Jinping, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and other heads of state.
Sources said deliberations will focus on expansion of the bloc, especially after more than 40 countries and regions, including Saudi Arabia, Argentina and Egypt expressed interest to join.
Leaders will also discuss promoting “political security”, boosting “the usage of local currencies”, as well as “cooperation on digital economy”.
It’s worth mentioning that the current BRICS region represents 26.46 percent of the world’s territory, some 42 percent of the world’s population, but only 25 percent of global economy and 18 percent of global trade, according to 2021 estimates.
More than 60 countries and regions have been invited to this year’s BRICS Summit in South Africa, the first such in-person event since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic at the end of 2019.
