Distinguished students,

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,

 

It is an honour for me to be here with you today – it doesn’t happen too often when a diplomat could interact with the younger audience, it is obvious that the world will very soon be entrusted to you, to your dreams and visions, to your skills and talents. So it is a precious moment, and I will try not to spoil it too much.

I will be honest with you – my focus in professional career has always been in the North. Being a graduate I was very keen to travel to a country with a warmer climate. But my diplomatic Gods were too kind to me and instead of sending me to somewhere in Africa they dropped me to the middle of nowhere in the Arctic  - a mysterious place 1500 km from the Northern Pole called Spitsbergen Archipelago. So I spent 2 years 3 months and 9 days in a mining town of Barentsburg, where we still have our Consulate General.  Since then one of my memory flashbacks always brings to me a picture of my first day at work with a bespectacled young diplomat in full diplomatic outfit (white shirt and black tie) being greeted by a Soviet Consul General -  a Grand Dad figure in a home gown and slippers measuring with his binoculars the depth of the total darkness of Spitsbergen Polar Night.

Looking back, I still believe that it was may be the most interesting time in my 35-years long diplomatic career. Google the Paris Treaty of Spitsbergen from 1920, and you will get a hint, why.  

Then I had postings to less interesting places like Oslo, Copenhagen, London, before I came here.

However the reason why I find my role today a bit unusual is a different one – though we diplomats are used to making speeches, and talking itself is a significant part of our job, giving a lecture is quite a different exercise for me. The fundamental principles of diplomacy are reciprocity and cooperation. And these two could only be achieved through dialogue. Besides that, you could easily google most of the things I am planning to tell you about BRICS and Russian position there.

That is why with your permission I would prefer to change the form of our meeting today – I would talk about BRICS as briefly as possible and then I would be delighted to answer your questions. And this is how I hope we can observe principles of diplomacy and maintain dialogue.

BRICS

A new world order – what is it about, does it exist? And what was the previous world order? And what actually happened after the cold war?

Now it is obvious for everyone that international relations have entered a transitional, and, perhaps, an irreversible stage of their evolution. This is due to the objective process of forming a new polycentric, more balanced, fair and all-inclusive system of international relations, which should reflect the geographical and civilizational diversity of the modern world. In other words, structures that are to be global powers and thus to introduce the new world order must represent the world they want to lead.

BRICS is a logical attempt, and I’d argue a rather successful attempt, which has a potential to become even more successful to represent the changes that drive this transitional process of creating a polycentric world.

Now just to illustrate if you take B for Britain, R for Romania, I for Iran, C for Cameroon and S for Sudan, would these countries constitute the New World Order? With all my respect hardly so. Simply because they do not represent the future of the  world.

The story of the BRICS technically begins with Goldman Sachs chief economist Jim O’Neill, who in distant 2001 happened to write a paper arguing that these countries were the emerging supernovas most likely to dominate the 21^st century globalized economy. BRICS countries come from Asia, Africa, Europe and America and are all members of the G20. Together, they account for 26.46% of world land area and 42.58% of world population. According to IMF’s estimates, BRICS countries generated 22.53% of the world GDP in 2015 and has contributed more than 50% of world economic growth during the last 10 years. Despite of all that they possess only 13.24% of World Bank voting power and 14.91% of IMF quota shares.

I will list several facts about BRICS to remind you about its history and how it works.

BRICS is made up of China, Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa. In 2009, the first BRIC Summit was held in Yekaterinburg, Russia. Since then, the Summit has become an annual event. Up to date, 9 Summits have been held, the last one in China in September 2017.

The very first BRIC Summit was very informal and focused in June 2009 in Yekaterinburg, Russia on crusial issues including the global financial crisis, the international situation, future direction of BRIC dialogue and cooperation, the G20 Summit, reform of international financial institutions, food security, energy security, climate change, development assistance, the Heiligendamm Process and prospects for BRIC dialogue. The Summit issued a joint statement that called for a greater say and representation of the emerging markets and developing countries in international financial institutions, and adopted a Joint Statement on Global Food Security.

The 2nd BRIC Summit was held in April 2010 in Brasilia, capital of Brazil. The leaders discussed issues including the international situation, the global financial crisis, the selection mechanism of World Bank and IMF’s senior management, G20 affairs, climate change, UN reform, international and regional hot-spot issues and BRIC cooperation. The Summit issued a joint statement and agreed on concrete measures to promote BRIC cooperation and coordination.

The 3rd BRICS Summit was held in April 2011 in Sanya, China. In December 2010, China, as the Chair, invited South Africa to join BRIC and attend the Summit in Sanya, China. BRIC officially enlarged to include 5 countries and the acronym changed into BRICS. The theme was “Broad Vision, Shared Prosperity”. Agenda items included the international situation, global economy and international finance, development and BRICS cooperation. The Summit issued the Sanya Declaration and its Action Plan. On the sidelines, the Meeting of Trade Ministers, Academic Forum, Financial Forum and Business Forum were held.

The 4th BRICS Summit was held in March 2012 in New Delhi, India. The theme was “BRICS Partnership for Global Stability, Security and Prosperity”. The leaders discussed issues including global governance and sustainable development. The Summit issued the New Delhi Declaration, its Action Plan and the BRICS Report on BRICS countries’ developing prospects, the cooperation process and areas with competitive advantage to enable BRICS countries to play a more important role in the global economy in the post-financial crisis era.

The 5th BRICS Summit was held in March 2013 in Durban, South Africa under theme “BRICS and Africa: Partnership for Development, Integration and Industrialization”. The Summit issued the Thekwini Declaration and its Action Plan, and decided to set up the New Development Bank and Contingent Reserve Arrangement. The establishment of the BRICS Business Council and Think Tank Council was announced. The BRICS Leaders-Africa Dialogue Forum was held during the Summit.

The 6th BRICS Summit was held in July 2014 in Fortaleza, Brazil under the theme “Inclusive Growth: Sustainable Solutions”. The leaders discussed such issues as political coordination, sustainable development and inclusive growth. The Summit issued the Fortaleza Declaration and its Action Plan. The leaders witnessed the signing of the Agreement on the New Development Bank and the Treaty for the Establishment of A BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement. BRICS Leaders meeting with South American Heads of Government and/or State was held during the Summit.

The 7th BRICS Summit was held in July 2015 in Ufa, Russia under the theme “BRICS Partnership - a Powerful Factor of Global Development”. The leaders discussed issues including global political and economic issues and BRICS cooperation. The Summit issued the Ufa Declaration and its Action Plan, and adopted the Strategy for BRICS Economic Partnership. The BRICS Leaders also held a meeting with the leaders of Eurasian Economic Union and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the leaders of observer countries during the Summit.

The 8th BRICS Summit was held in October 2016 in Goa, India under the theme “Building Responsive, Inclusive and Collective Solutions”. The leaders discussed issues including international political and economic situation, global governance, counter-terrorism, climate change, Sustainable Development Goals, BRICS cooperation, and people-to-people and cultural exchanges. The Summit issued the Goa Declaration and its Action Plan, and reiterated the commitment to strengthening BRICS partnership. Outreach Summit of BRICS Leaders with the Leaders of BIMSTEC Member Countries was held during the Summit.

In the 10 years since its inception, BRICS cooperation has continued to consolidate its foundation and expanded to more areas. It is now a multi-level process led by the Summit, but reinforced by meetings of the national Security Advisors, Foreign Ministers and other ministerial meetings, and enriched by pragmatic cooperation in dozens of areas such as economy, trade, finance, business, agriculture, education, health, science and technology, culture, think tanks, and friendship cities. Cooperation mechanisms such as the New Development Bank, Contingent Reserve Arrangement, Business Council and Think Tank Council have been established. Pragmatic cooperation has gone to greater depth to yield more fruitful results and exerted important influence globally.

Russia’s position

I will reiterate that we highly value the multifaceted cooperation that has developed within BRICS. Our countries’ constructive cooperation on the international arena is aimed at creating a fair multipolar world and equal development conditions for all.

Russia stands for closer coordination of the BRICS countries’ foreign policies, primarily at the UN and G20, as well as other international organisations. It is clear that only the combined efforts of all countries can help bring about global stability and find solutions to many acute conflicts, including those in the Middle East. Here I will quote my president Mr Vladimir Putin – «thanks to the efforts of Russia and other concerned countries those conditions have been created to improve the situation in Syria. We have delivered a powerful blow to the terrorists and laid the groundwork for launching the movement towards a political settlement and the return of the Syrian people to peace».

However, the fight against terrorists in Syria and other countries and regions must continue. Russia calls for going over from debates to the practical creation of a broad counterterrorism front based on international law and led by the UN. Naturally, we highly appreciate the support and assistance of our BRICS partners in this respect.

I have to say a few words about the situation on the Korean Peninsula, where tensions have grown recently and the situation is balancing on a brink of a large-scale conflict. Russia believes that the policy of putting pressure on Pyongyang to stop its nuclear missile programme is misguided and futile. The region’s problems should only be settled through a direct dialogue of all the parties concerned without any preconditions. Provocations, pressure and militarist and insulting rhetoric are a dead-end road.

Russia and China have created a roadmap for a lasting settlement on the Korean Peninsula that is designed to promote the gradual easing of tensions and the creation of a mechanism for lasting peace and security.

Russia also calls for promoting the interaction of the BRICS countries in the area of global information security. We propose joining our efforts to create a legal basis for cooperation and subsequently to draft and adopt universal rules of responsible behaviour of states in this sphere. A major step towards this goal would be the signing of an intergovernmental BRICS agreement on international information security.

I would like to point out that on Russia’s initiative a BRICS Strategy for Economic Partnership was adopted at the Ufa Summit in 2015 and is being successfully implemented.

Some critics say that consequences of the financial crisis have had a long-lasting damaging effect on BRICS. However the situation now is much better. Considerable practical achievements have been recently reported in this area, primarily the launch of the New Development Bank. It has approved seven investment projects in the BRICS countries worth around $1.5 billion. This year, the NDB is to approve a second package of investment projects worth $2.5-$3 billion in total.

Russia shares the BRICS countries’ concerns over the unfairness of the global financial and economic architecture, which does not give due regard to the growing weight of the emerging economies. We are ready to work together with our partners to promote international financial regulation reforms and to overcome the excessive domination of the limited number of reserve currencies.

Russia’s initiative on the development of cooperation among the BRICS countries’ antimonopoly agencies is aimed at creating effective mechanisms to encourage healthy competition. The goal is to create a package of cooperation measures to work against the restrictive business practices of large multinational corporations and trans-border violations of competition rules.

I would like to draw your attention to Russia’s initiative on the establishment of a BRICS Energy Research Platform. We believe that this would enable us to coordinate our information, analysis and research activities in the interests of the five BRICS countries and would ultimately facilitate the implementation of joint energy investment projects.

Another priority is to build up our cooperation in the area of small and medium-sized enterprises (SME). We believe that we should integrate the national SMEs’ online resources for placing crosslinks and other commercial information and for exchanging data on reliable partners.

Russia is advocating the Women and the Economy public-private dialogue. This initiative provides for holding regular debates by members of the BRICS countries’ business and expert communities, women’s associations and government agencies. The first such meeting was held in Novosibirsk on July 4, 2017, on the sidelines of the First International Women’s Congress of the SCO and BRICS Member States. Another related idea is to create a BRICS Women’s Business Club as a network of professional interaction between women in business through a specialised online information resource.

It may sound unusual for a formal intergovernmental structure however we hope that our partners will take part in the New Wave and New Wave Junior international contests of young pop singers. We have also advanced the initiative to create a joint television network of the BRICS countries.

So these are our priorities in BRICS which I hope are shared by our partners.

Thank you for your attention!

Now I am ready to answer your questions