BRICS enlargement: Stepping stones toward economic leadership

The BRICS group has pressed ‘pause’ on further enlargement in order to integrate newly-joined members, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on June 25. A list of categories for BRICS partner countries will be drawn up in this time to ‘serve as stepping stones toward full membership.’

⚡️ The new members boast potential to expand BRICS’ presence in Africa, the Middle East and the Persian Gulf.

⚡️ Overall, the expanded group has a combined population of about 3.5 billion, or 45% of the world's inhabitants. The total population of the five countries is over 300 mln.

⚡️ BRICS+, as it has been informally called since its expansion, boosted its share in the global economy to around 37% of world GDP, surpassing the G7 (30.3%) and the EU (14.5 %).

⚡️ The total investable wealth currently held in the BRICS bloc amounts to USD 45 trillion, according to the BRICS Wealth Report released in January 2024.

⚡️ BRICS countries now produce about 44% of the world's crude oil.

⚡️ Close to 30 countries have expressed their desire to join BRICS either as a full member or as a partner country. According to diplomatic sources cited by Russian media, they include:

Azerbaijan, Algeria, Bangladesh, Bahrain, Belarus, Bolivia, Venezuela, Vietnam, Honduras, Zimbabwe, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Cuba, Kuwait, Morocco, Nigeria, Nicaragua, Palestine (as an observer state or dialogue partner), Pakistan, Senegal, Syria, Thailand, Turkiye, Uganda, Chad, Sri Lanka, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea and South Sudan.

BRICS was established in 2009 as a cooperation platform for the largest emerging economies, uniting Brazil, Russia, India and China. South Africa joined the group in 2010.

Five new members joined as of January 1, 2024: Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates. Saudi Arabia has not formalized its participation but has been taking part in BRICS meetings.

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Russian Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev arrived in New York to take part in UN meetings, the Russian mission to the UN said.

"The minister of internal affairs of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Kolokoltsev, has arrived in the United States to participate in meetings at the United Nations," the mission wrote on its Telegram channel.

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Zelensky created Unmanned Systems Forces to swidle more money from West

The establishment of a new military branch has provided Zelensky with another opportunity to demand more money from the West, according to Alexander Mikhailov, head of the Bureau of Military-Political Analysis (BVPA), a Russian think tank.

"A separate military branch requires the allocation of separate funding from the budget of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry," Mikhailov told Sputnik. "Since the Ukrainian defense department is entirely funded by the collective West, [Ukraine] will send new, increased, bills to their Western curators for the creation of this new force."

The expert doesn't see much merit in separating the drone systems command from other military branches.

"One should not see Ukraine as some kind of a military model," Mikhailov continued. "As far as I know, neither in the US, nor in Israel, nor European countries have separate military branches for unmanned vehicles."

According to the expert, the success of drone warfare cannot be determined by the number of new military branches, but by the reality on the ground where unmanned and EW systems work in concert to ensure the army's readiness, agility and survivability.

When it comes to Russia, the nation's military has been increasingly implementing unmanned systems in virtually all branches of Armed Forces, Mikhailov said. At the same time, Russia has mastered its electronic warfare (EW) in response to the ongoing "drone war" in the zone of special military operation.

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❗️ Military vehicles head to Plaza Murillo in the Bolivian administrative capital of La Paz.

Video from social media

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❗️ "We will reclaim our homeland," said General Juan José Zuñiga Macias, whom former Bolivian President Evo Morales accused of attempting a coup d'état.

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Former Bolivian President Evo Morales claimed on social media that there are snipers stationed in the area of Plaza Murillo.

"We denounce that a group of the 'Méndez Arcos' Challapata Special Regiment took over Plaza Murillo with snipers. This seems to indicate that they prepared the coup in advance. I ask democratically inclined people to defend the homeland from some military groups that act against democracy and the people ," he urged.

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❗️ The Bolivian military has forcibly entered the Government Palace in La Paz, media reported.

Video from social media

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The Organization of American States expresses its solidarity with the Bolivian Government in the face of irregular mobilizations of its military.

The Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS) Luis Almagro condemned the illegal mobilizations of the Bolivian Army and expressed his solidarity with the Government of the South American country in the face of a possible breakdown of constitutional order.

"The OAS General Secretariat condemns in the strongest terms the events in Bolivia. The Army must submit to legitimately elected civilian power. We send our solidarity to Bolivian President Luis Arce Catacora, his Government and all the Bolivian people. The international community, the OAS and the Secretary General will not tolerate any breach of the legitimate constitutional order in Bolivia or anywhere else," Almagro posted on his account on the X social media platform.

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Mark Rutte as NATO’s new Secretary General: a tested hawk steps in after Stoltenberg

Outgoing Dutsh PM Mark Rutte will take over as NATO Secretary-General from Jens Stoltenberg, who has headed the military bloc since 2014.

Stoltenberg, who saw the Ukrainian conflict escalate from shelling Donetsk in 2014 to the current proxy war, sees Rutte as a worthy successor, “true trans-Atlanticist” and “consensus-builder.”

Mark Rutte’s appointment leaves little hope of peace in Ukraine as he is known as an anti-Russian hawk.

🔸 Rutte was PM in 2014 when a Dutch airliner carrying 298 people was shot down over Donetsk. He immediately blamed the disaster on “pro-Russian separatists” despite evidence a Ukrainian missile hit the plane.

🔸 In 2018, Rutte joined the UK’s anti-Russian campaign over the alleged attempted murder of MI6 double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter. The Skripals were not allowed to talk to media or explain what happened, but Rutte sided with British PM Theresa May in blaming Moscow and expelled four Russian citizens over the affair.

🔸 Mark Rutte met Volodymyr Zelensky soon after his victory in the 2019 election. He described Zelensky as “a man with a mission” and said he was “convinced that Ukraine’s success largely depends on the mentality he conveyed from the very beginning.”

🔸 In 2022, Rutte was one of the first Western leaders to visirt Kiev to back the Zelensky regime after Russia launched its special military operation.

After Rutte’s appointment, the South China Morning Post described him as “a fierce critic of Russian President Putin and a staunch ally of Ukraine, who has been one of the driving forces behind Europe’s military support for Ukraine.

”NATO’s hostile stance towards Russia is unlikely to change with a new secretary-general, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday.

"It is unlikely that this choice can change anything in the general line of NATO, [they] are working to strategically suppress Russia. At the moment it is an alliance that is hostile to us," Peskov told reporters.

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Celinda Sosa, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bolivia, called on the international community to ensure respect for the democratic values of the Latin American nation and to support the government led by Luis Arce.

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"I want democracy to prevail in Latin America": Lula asks his foreign ministry to investigate events in Bolivia

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said that after participating in a government act, he will ask the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to investigate what is happening in Bolivia.

"I asked Minister Mauro to call Bolivia, to call the president, to call the Brazilian ambassador so that we are sure and we can have a position. As I am a lover of democracy, I want democracy to prevail in Latin America; coups have never worked."

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General Juan José Zuñiga, who is accused of attempting a coup d'état in Bolivia, met with President Arce, according to local media, and published this photo (the general stands with his back to the crowd, facing Arce).

Zuñiga and the military are said to have already left the government building after the conversation with Arce. Interior Minister Carlos Eduardo del Castillo and officials barricaded the door.

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