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The emergence of BRICS has brought the Global South to the centre of the global geopolitical, economic and financial order, South African High Commissioner to India Anil Sooklal said, describing the grouping as a powerful formation working not just for developing nations but for the wider global community.
In an exclusive interview with ANI ahead of the BRICS Summit in New Delhi later this week, Sooklal said the grouping represents a major shift from an international system in which the agenda was largely dominated by powerful countries, while nations of the Global South remained on the margins. "For the first time on the global stage, you have a powerful formation of the Global South. The Global South was always on the margins," Sooklal said. "The emergence of BRICS has brought to the fore countries of the Global South as a major addition to the global geopolitical environment to work collectively for the benefit of the global community, not just the Global South," he said. Sooklal emphasised that although BRICS is primarily focused on challenges confronting developing countries and emerging economies, the issues being addressed by the grouping have consequences for the entire world. "If you look at BRICS, yes, it is primarily concentrated on the challenges we face as developing countries and emerging economies. But the issues we address are issues that impact the entire global community and working to address this in a collective manner," he said. Calling the upcoming summit in New Delhi an important gathering, Sooklal said the participation of BRICS leaders would itself underline the growing strategic significance of the grouping. "I think this is an important summit Nearly all of the BRICS leaders are going to be in New Delhi this week and I think that itself is an important indication of just how strategic this formation is in terms of the global environment," he said. Referring to leaders including Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese Prewsident Xi Jinping and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa-- Sooklal said their presence would constitute a "very powerful statement" about the significance of BRICS. "I wouldn't say just of the Global South. Today these are global figures that impact on what is happening on the global geopolitical, economic, financial stage," he said. High Commissioner Sooklal underlined the summit comes at a particularly difficult juncture, with India having assumed the BRICS presidency amid multiple geopolitical and economic fault lines. "India inherited the presidency of BRICS perhaps at the most difficult moment under any presidency in the past 18 years," he said, pointing to the situation in Gaza, the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the Iran-US conflict and unilateral trade measures that have affected the global economy. He said the New Delhi summit would provide BRICS leaders an opportunity to collectively deliberate on these challenges. His remarks come as all eyes are on India with New Delhi set to hold the key diplomatic gathering later this week, bringing the BRICS leader together under the theme Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability, reflecting a people-centric and humanity-first approach articulated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the 2025 Rio Summit. (ANI)
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