Chinese President, Xi Jinpingcriticized on Thursday “the abuse” of international sanctions, while the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, rebuked the West for fomenting the world crisis. Both leaders called for more cooperation from the BRICS.
Xi asked Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) that they assume the responsibility that their economic weight confers on them, and said that they must defend a truly multinational international system based on the United Nations.
“We must abandon the Cold War mentality and block confrontation and oppose unilateral sanctions, and the abuse of sanctions,” Xi told the BRICS summit through a translator.
“Our meeting today comes at a crucial moment of choice for the future of humanity: As key emerging markets and developing countries, the BRICS countries must live up to our responsibility,” Xi said.
China is by far the largest economy in the BRICS grouping, accounting for more than 70% of the group’s collective economic power, which amounts to $27.5 trillion.
Putin called for greater cooperation between the BRICS and lashed out at the West, which he accused of fomenting a crisis.
“Only on the basis of honest and mutually beneficial cooperation can we look for ways out of the crisis situation that has developed in the world economy due to the thoughtless and selfish actions of individual states,” Putin said.
He accused the West of “using the financial mechanisms” to “shift its own macroeconomic policy mistakes around the world.”
Putin has claimed that relations with China are the best in his history and is touting a strategic partnership with China aimed at countering US influence.
US President Joe Biden has said that the West is locked in a battle with autocratic governments like China and Russia.
The United States and European powers blame Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine for causing relations with the West to sink to the lowest point since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis.
Putin says that the West wants to destroy Russia, that the sanctions are like a declaration of economic war and that Moscow will establish ties with other powers such as China and India.
Putin, who calls the Ukraine war a “special military operation,” blames the United States for humiliating Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 and for threatening Moscow with an expansion of the NATO military alliance.
Russia sent troops to Ukraine on February 24 to degrade its southern neighbor’s military capabilities, root out people it calls dangerous nationalists and defend Russian-speakers in two regions of eastern Ukraine.
Ukraine says that Russia has launched an imperial-style land occupation and will never hand over its territory to Russia.