They hadn’t met for four years. The Foreign Ministers of the BRICS group meet in Cape Town, South Africa, from this Thursday until tomorrow Friday June 2. Ministers from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa are expected to discuss ongoing challenges to strengthen their partnership and weigh in on what they perceive as Western and notably American domination .
With our correspondent in Johannesburg, Roman Song
This meeting is also a life-size rehearsal before the summit of heads of state which is to take place in August, in Johannesburg. We still do not know if Vladimir Putin, targeted by an international arrest warrant, will dare to set foot in South Africa.
The question will be on everyone’s mind at the meeting in Cape Town on Thursday and Sergei Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister, can expect to have to answer it. The Russian president has traveled little outside his borders since the start of the war in Ukraine, so his visit to Johannesburg would be an event.
In the meantime, it is indeed his minister, Sergei Lavrov who is traveling. Here he is already back in South Africa after his visit in January. He is also back from a tour that took him to Kenya, Burundi and Mozambique. Russia shows interest in Africa and Africans show interest in BRICS.
On Friday, the group of five will open up to friendly countries. The Foreign Ministers of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Comoros and Gabon are expected while Egypt is to participate remotely. Egypt would like to join the BRICS group, just like Algeria. The last integration dates back to 2010, South Africa was invited.
>> To read also: Recently gathered virtually in Beijing, the BRICS intend to continue their expansion