Leaders of the BRICS nations - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - opened a summit in Johannesburg today where they are expected to weigh expanding membership.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said the BRICS grouping of countries was on course to meet the aspirations of most of the world's population, according to recorded remarks.
"We cooperate on the principles of equality, partnership support, respect for each other's interests, and this is the essence of the future-oriented strategic course of our association, a course that meets the aspirations of the main part of the world community, the so-called global majority," Mr Putin said.
The BRICS members - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - represent more than 40% of the world's population and the summit is expected to discuss adding new members, but he did not address that question in his remarks.
Mr Putin was unable to attend the summit in person because of an arrest warrant issued for him in March by the International Criminal Court (ICC), accusing him of war crimes in Ukraine.
Russia rejected the accusation as outrageous and said the move had no legal meaning because it is not a member of the ICC.
South Africa is a member, however, meaning it would have been obliged to arrest him if he had travelled there.
Mr Putin said the summit would discuss in detail the question of switching trade between member countries away from the US dollar and into national currencies, a process in which the BRICS' New Development Bank would play a big role.
"The objective, irreversible process of de-dollarization of our economic ties is gaining momentum," he said.
Trade Routes
BRICS is an increasingly important forum for Russia at a time when its economy is grappling with Western sanctions over the war in Ukraine and it is looking to build new diplomatic and trade relations with Asia, Africa and Latin America.
Mr Putin said Russia was looking to develop two flagship projects in particular - a northern sea route with new ports, fuel terminals and an expanded icebreaker fleet, and a north-south corridor connecting Russian ports with sea terminals in the Gulf and in the Indian Ocean.
He said Russia would remain a reliable food supplier to Africa and was finalising talks on providing free grain to a group of African countries, as he promised at a summit in St. Petersburg last month.
The promise came after Russia pulled out of a deal that had enabled Ukraine to export grain from its Black Sea ports, and after it repeatedly bombed Ukrainian ports and grain stores, leading Kyiv and the West to accuse it of using food as a weapon of war.
Countering the West
The summit comes as some members push to forge the bloc into a counterweight to the West.
Heightened global tensions provoked by the Ukraine war and a growing rivalry between China and the US have added urgency to a drive to strengthen the bloc, which has at times suffered from internal divisions and a lack of coherent vision.
"An expanded BRICS will represent a diverse group of nations with different political systems that share a common desire to have a more balanced global order," South Africa's president Cyril Ramaphosa said in an address ahead of the meetings.
Boosting the use of member states' local currencies is also on the agenda. South African summit organisers, however, say there will be no discussions of a BRICS currency.
This was an idea floated by Brazil earlier this year as an alternative to dollar-dependence.
Ramaphosa will host Chinese President Xi Jinping, Brazil's Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi from August 22 to 24.
Expansion has long been a goal of bloc heavyweight China, which hopes that broader membership will lend clout to a grouping already home to some 40% of the world's population and a quarter of global GDP.
The leaders will hold a mini-retreat and dinner this evening where they are likely to discuss a framework and criteria for admitting new countries.
But expansion has become a point of contention.
Russia is keen to bring in new members to counter its diplomatic isolation over its invasion of Ukraine. South Africa has also voiced support.
India, which is wary of Chinese dominance and has warned against rushing expansion, has "positive intent and an open mind", Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra said yesterday. Brazil, meanwhile, is concerned that growing BRICS will dilute its influence.
While a potential BRICS enlargement remains up in the air, the bloc's pledge to become a champion of the developing "Global South" and offer an alternative to a world order dominated by wealthy Western nations is already finding resonance.
Over 40 countries have expressed interest in joining BRICS, say South African officials. Of them, nearly two dozen have formally asked to be admitted.
