Cuba Participates at BRICS Summit in Russia

Havana, Oct 23 (ACN) A Cuban delegation headed by Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez is participating at the 16th Summit of the BRICS alliance of countries, which winds up Thursday in the Russian city of Kazan.

The island is attending the meeting as a guest country, along high-level representatives of some 20 nations along the BRICS member states: Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Ethiopia.

The Cuban foreign minister, who arrived Monday in Kazan, announced that the current circumstances facing his country did not allow the presence in the Summit of President Miguel Diaz-Canel, because he is leading actions to reestablish the island’s national power grid and efforts to recover from the impact of hurricane Oscar on eastern Cuba.

The summit will be marked by some definitions in terms of the challenges facing an alliance with important significance at the world level, since the BRICS stand for half the world population, according to the Cuban Foreign Ministry’s website.

The alliance also stands for 40 percent of the world oil output, some 25 percent of the export of goods and 36 percent of the global gross domestic product, over the Group of 7 (G-7) which represents 29 percent according to the World Bank.

The BRICS alliance is considered to the opportunity to achieve a new, fairer and democratic world order.lc