Russian President Vladimir Putin. --Photo © Alexander Shcherbak/TASS

Putin holds Outreach/BRICS Plus meeting, gives news conference

KAZAN (TASS) -- An Outreach/BRICS Plus meeting held on the final day of the BRICS Summit in Kazan. Russian President Vladimir Putin also gave a news conference to sum up the results of the three-day summit and answered questions from journalists.
BRICS and friends
The Outreach/BRICS Plus is an extended format, which includes more then the ten BRICS members. The meeting in Kazan  was attended by delegates from nearly 40 countries, including leaders of a number of CIS, Asian, African, Middle East, and Latin American countries, as well as heads of international organisations.
The agenda included issues of sustainable development, peaceful settlement of conflicts, fighting against terrorism and transborder crime, measures against poverty, climate change, the stability of supplies chains, exchanges of technologies and knowledge. “In other words, the topics that directly influence the life of people in our countries and require collective efforts,” Putin stressed.
Special attention was focused on the situation in the Middle East, Kremlin adviser Yury Ushakov said.
Summing up results
After the Outreach/BRICS Plus meeting, the Russian president spoke at a news conference.
According to Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, journalists from many countries, including unfriendly ones, have been accredited to Putin’s news conference.
After the news conference, Putin continued bilateral meeting with foreign leaders. The Russian president tried to speak with all of the foreign leaders attending the summit.
Other scheduled events included an informal dinner, two working sessions, and a gala reception on behalf of the Russian president.
On Wednesday, the BRICS countries adopted the Kazan declaration.
The 16th BRICS Summit, which is the key event of Russia’s chairmanship in the association, is being held in Kazan on October 22-24. The BRICS group was founded in 2006 by Brazil, Russia, India and China, with South Africa joining it in 2011.
On January 1, 2024, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates became its full-fledged members. On the same day, Russia assumed one-year rotating chairmanship of BRICS.

(Latest Update October 25, 2024)