Putin calls on BRICS leaders to cooperate in face of West's 'selfish actions'

Moscow: As Moscow has been facing Western sanctions over its operation in Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday called on BRICS leaders to cooperate in the face of "selfish actions" from the West,

"...only on the basis of honest and mutually beneficial cooperation we can look for ways out of the critical situation that has emerged in the world economy because of the ill-conceived and selfish actions of certain states, which, by using financial mechanisms, are actually shifting their own macroeconomic policy mistakes onto the rest of the world," Putin said in his virtual address. The 14th BRICS summit is being hosted by China in a virtual mode.

Putin also pointed out that this is an objective process, since the five countries have a truly great economic, scientific, technological and human potential. They can effectively work together to ensure international stability and security, sustainable growth and prosperity and the well-being of their people.

The Russian president added that Moscow considers the theme of today's meeting, 'Foster High-quality BRICS Partnership, Usher in a New Era for Global Development', relevant. He drew attention to the fact that the complexity and transnational nature of the challenges and threats the international community faces require a search for collective responses with the bloc's active participation.

"We have repeatedly said that only together we can solve such problems as conflict resolution, combating terrorism, organized crime, including the criminal use of new technologies, combating climate change, and the spread of dangerous infections," the Russian president stressed.

BRICS has become a platform for discussing and deliberating on issues of common concern for all developing countries. BRICS countries have regularly called for reform of the multilateral system in order to make it more representative and inclusive.

BRICS is a multilateral forum consisting of five major emerging economies of the world, namely Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.