BRICS calls for less war and more finance but shy on detail

BRICS leaders including China's Xi Jinping, India's Narendra Modi and Vladimir Putin on Wednesday called for a ceasefire in Gaza and made positive noises about a non-Western payment system but mentioned Ukraine just once in their final communique.

BRICS - an idea thought up inside Goldman Sachs two decades ago to describe the growing economic clout of China and other major emerging markets - is now a group that accounts for 45% of the world's population and 35% of the global economy.

The 43-page final communique from the BRICS summit ranged from geopolitics and narcotics to artificial intelligence and even the preservation of big cats, but lacked detail on some major issues.

With Russia under what the West says are the most punitive sanctions ever imposed due to the war in Ukraine, Moscow has been wary of giving too much detail about its financial and trade ties for fear of triggering more U.S. sanctions.

Still, the final communique indicated little progress had been made on an alternative payment system - that some members hope could finance transactions between BRICS countries. The dollar was not mentioned.

"We agree to discuss and study the feasibility of establishment of an independent cross-border settlement and depositary infrastructure, BRICS Clear, an initiative to complement the existing financial market infrastructure, as well as BRICS independent reinsurance capacity," it said.

"We task our Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors, as appropriate, to continue consideration of the issue of local currencies, payment instruments and platforms and report back to us by the next presidency."

The toughest language was reserved for the Middle East, calling for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, and denounced Israeli "attacks against humanitarian operations, facilities, personnel and distribution points."

It mentioned Ukraine just once.

"We recall national positions concerning the situation in and around Ukraine as expressed in the appropriate fora," the communique said.

"We note with appreciation relevant proposals of mediation and good offices, aimed at a peaceful resolution of the conflict through dialogue and diplomacy.

BRICS EXPANSION?

The acronym BRIC was coined in 2001 by then-Goldman Sachs chief economist Jim O'Neill in a research paper that underlined the massive growth potential of Brazil, Russia, India and China this century.

The leaders said they would seek to further develop BRICS institutional development, but gave little clarity on whether or not BRICS would be expanded.

Putin, who has dismissed the West's war crimes allegations against him, said that more than 30 states had expressed interest in joining the group but that it was important to strike a balance in any expansion.

More than 20 leaders, including Chinese President Xi, Indian Prime Minister Modi, United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian are attending the BRICS summit.

WAR

The war in Ukraine, though, hangs over the Kazan summit.

Modi told Putin in public that he wanted peace in Ukraine. Xi discussed the war in the Ukraine behind closed doors with the Kremlin chief. China and India buy about 90% of Russia's oil - Moscow's biggest foreign currency earner. Russia is the world's second largest oil exporter.

Russia, which is advancing, controls about one fifth of Ukraine, including Crimea which it seized and unilaterally annexed in 2014, about 80% of the Donbas - a coal-and-steel zone comprising the Donetsk and Luhansk regions - and over 70% of the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions.

Putin has said that Moscow would not trade away the four regions of eastern Ukraine that it says are now part of Russia and that Moscow wants its long-term security interests taken into account in Europe.

China and Brazil have been trying at the United Nations to garner support from developing countries for a truce. Ukraine has said Beijing and Brasília are doing the bidding of Moscow.

Putin has said the Chinese-Brazilian proposals could be a basis for ending the war. He sent thousands of troops into Ukraine in 2022 after eight years of fighting in eastern Ukraine.

Ukraine and Russia have each made separate proposals for ending the war which are far apart.

(Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin in Kazan and Guy Faulconbridge and Dmitry Antonov in Moscow; editing by Philippa Fletcher, William Maclean)