When the BRIC group, as it was known then, first emerged, it was greeted with amusement as another exotic variety of alphabet soup in the age of globalization. As it became a more permanent fixture, it was regarded as a poor man’s version of a global club, like a humble answer to the G7.

More recently, it has come to be feared, not least by U.S. President Donald Trump, as a potential threat to the dominance of the American dollar. In the run-up to the 2026 BRICS summit in New Delhi, the Western media shifted its focus to the divergences within the group, essentially portraying it as something less than the sum of its parts.

However, all these interpretations miss the actual significance of BRICS, which is its role as an early model of the emerging multipolar order.

Over the past five centuries or so, roughly the period of Western global hegemony, the world order has invariably been based on the dominance of a single power, whether Spain, France, Britain or America, or a combination of powers, such as the Concert of Europe or the U.S.-Soviet bipolar system.

Single-power hegemony remains very much alive in the West today, whether one looks at NATO, AUKUS, international financial institutions or Washington-led alliances in Asia and elsewhere. True, the European Union does not exactly fit this model, but it has NATO as its bedrock, while its members maintain strong, and unequal, relations with the United States.

What keeps these countries together isn’t merely geopolitics and geoeconomics, given they also share a broadly similar worldview, even if its liberal and conservative versions can occasionally clash rather vehemently. Taken together, they represent Western civilization, along with a handful of associates, but BRICS is a very different creature.

Its members vary enormously in population, territory, economic weight, military strength and technological and scientific capabilities and their histories aren’t as closely intertwined as those of Europe and North America, while their political systems are highly diverse and their domestic and foreign policies often point in different directions.

Most fundamentally, they represent several great civilizations, including Chinese and Confucian, Indian and Hindu, Islamic, Persian and Arab, Latin American, African and Russian. In this sense, they’re anything but like-minded, yet they reflect the diversity of humankind itself.

What BRICS obviously lacks is a leader because China, with its 1.5 billion people, the world’s largest economy in purchasing-power-parity terms and a leading position in advanced technology, isn’t the group’s boss and nor is Russia, the world’s fourth-largest economy by the same measure, and alongside the United States, a nuclear superpower.

Despite what Moscow sees as NATO waging a proxy war against Russia in Ukraine, it hasn’t attempted to turn BRICS into an anti-Western bloc.

India, meanwhile, is the third major economic power in the group and has overtaken China as the world’s most populous country. It still maintains close ties with America and Western Europe while preserving and developing its historical links with Russia, even as it remains wary of China.

Iran and the United Arab Emirates, for their part, find themselves on opposite sides of the ongoing war involving Iran, Israel, and the United States, but BRICS isn’t unraveling.

Chinese President Xi Jinping traveled to the Delhi summit, his first visit to India in seven years and a sign that Beijing clearly doesn’t want to give Washington an opportunity to exploit existing problems in Sino-Indian relations to stoke tensions between Asia’s two great powers.

Meanwhile, even as it lashes out against U.S. bases in the region, Iran is reaching out to its Arab neighbors to discuss a regional security framework in the Persian Gulf.

The durability of Russo-Chinese relations since their normalization in 1989 rests not only on a convergence of fundamental interests, but also on Beijing’s and Moscow’s ability to manage their differences carefully on specific issues.

While the political philosophies of BRICS countries differ widely, they adhere to several key principles that make cooperation possible and at the top of the list is sovereignty as we see Russia, China, India, Iran and others not only preach sovereignty but seek to defend and promote it.

Closely linked to sovereignty is equality, and Russia’s Western adversaries have long sought to humiliate Moscow by portraying it as Beijing’s vassal, as if Western Europe’s kowtowing to Washington and Trump were mere politeness.

In reality, Sino-Russian political relations are conducted on an equal footing and the same applies to Russia’s relations with its other BRICS partners, from Brazil and Indonesia to Egypt.

Sovereign equality also implies non-interference in other nations’ domestic politics which comes more easily to countries that don’t present themselves as models or sole guardians of universal values. Accepting others as they are, and respecting the right of other peoples to have their own institutions, is a prerequisite for genuine relations between civilizations.

There’s no need to make BRICS appear to be something it is not, it’s not an alliance or an anti-Western coalition, and if anything, its record offers a glimpse of a different kind of world order.

This is no paradise, but it’s an order in which diversity can thrive, sovereignty is treated as sacred, differences can be managed and consensus, rather than diktat, is the guiding principle.

Decision-making is admittedly difficult and conflicts, including violent ones, are by no means excluded, but it offers a much fairer deal than an order in which one nation or group of nations can impose itself on others, lay down rules for everyone except itself, and then judge and punish those it considers offenders.

Dmitry Trenin, is president of the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC) and a lead research fellow at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations. He is also a research professor at the Higher School of Economics.

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Speaking at a meeting marking the 65th anniversary of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in Belgrade, Serbia, Mahama said that the current international system does not reflect global realities.

“It is no longer acceptable for Africa to be excluded from permanent seats on the United Nations Security Council,” Ghanaian president said.

Mahama also urged NAM members to turn their numerical strength into greater political influence, while preserving the group’s independence and translating statements into diplomatic action.

“Today’s world needs a multilateral system that is stronger, more representative, and more responsive,” the president stressed. “For the Council to earn the trust and legitimacy of the international community, it must better reflect the world it serves.”

The Ghanaian leader cited the adoption of a UN General Assembly resolution recognizing the slave trade as the gravest crime against humanity as an example of what countries of the Global South can achieve through collective action.

The Security Council currently has five permanent members—China, France, Russia, the UK, and the U.S.—and 10 elected members serving two-year terms. Three African countries—the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, and Somalia—currently hold non-permanent seats. Africa, despite having 54 UN member states, has no permanent representation on the body.

Calls for permanent African representation on the UN Security Council have intensified in recent years. African Union Commission Chairperson Mahmoud Ali Youssouf has described the continent’s exclusion as a “historical injustice,” while leaders including Kenyan President William Ruto have backed at least two permanent African seats with veto powers.

Russia has also backed greater African representation. President Vladimir Putin has called for the body to be expanded to include countries from Africa, Asia and Latin America.

The NAM was founded in Belgrade in 1961. It currently comprises 120 member states, mainly from Africa, Asia, and Latin America, and serves as a major platform for cooperation among countries of the Global South. (RT.com)

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The death toll has risen to 1,003, Nepal’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA) said on Sept. 1.

Nearly 4,000 people remain unaccounted for, the country’s Foreign Ministry said, adding about 590 foreign nationals from 39 countries are among them. Some 11,800 have been rescued.

As the authorities try to bring relief and supplies to survivors, rescue teams are racing to locate the hundreds believed trapped in the 12-13 tunnels of the many hydroelectric projects dotting the Trishuli river corridor.

The NDRRMA has listed 639 people associated with the hydropower projects as missing. But the authorities have not been able to establish how many of those could be inside the tunnels or may have been swept away.

At the Upper Trishuli-3A Hydropower Project, where rescue teams had located and drilled into the tunnel’s head on August 31, they were still pumping in air and draining water to enable entry.

Excavators and rock breakers are clearing access routes to the 4 km-long (2.48 miles) tunnel, where between 30 and 40 people are believed to be in the underground powerhouse, the Kathmandu Post reported.

Since Aug. 31, Nepali Army teams working with specialists from other countries have advanced further into several tunnels. The Foreign Ministry said 24 Indian and nine Chinese tunnel-rescue specialists are deployed at the affected sites, while a South Korean team has also arrived in Nepal.

A joint team reached 200 meters into the 9.5 km-long (5.9 miles) Upper Trishuli-1 tunnel. Rescuers also reached about 50 meters into the Chilime tunnel, and around 150 meters (164 feet) into Langtang—both about 3 km (1.86 miles) in length.

The Nepalese Army said 279 people had been rescued alive from hydropower projects immediately after the floods, including 221 from Upper Trishuli-3A and 33 from Upper Trishuli-1. More than 21,000 Nepalese security personnel are involved in the search, evacuation, and relief work.

The NDRRMA said 37 trucks and 37 utility vehicles carrying food and relief materials had been dispatched to affected areas, with supplies also delivered on nine helicopter flights.

Nepal has requested equipment including LiDAR, temporary bridge units, freezers, DNA testing kits, and high-capacity drones to support rescue and relief operations.

The Foreign Ministry said it is helping families of missing foreign nationals obtain information about their loved ones and, where needed, assist with identification and repatriation, while acknowledging “the pain and uncertainty” of families still waiting for their missing family members. (RT.com)

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The ministry, in a statement released on Aug. 13, vehemently condemned the rhetoric of “criminal” Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the Golan Heights, occupied by the Tel Aviv regime for almost 60 years, will remain part of Israel “for eternity,” and his fierce opposition to the establishment of a Palestinian state.

“Basically, the leader of the criminal gang and mafia ruling over the occupied Palestinian territories is not in a position to comment on the formation of an independent Palestinian state, because the Palestinian land belongs to the Palestinian people, and the racist illusions of the genocidal Zionist regime cannot change this reality,” the statement added.

It added that “the Golan Heights are an inseparable part of the territory of Syria, and the colonial ambitions of a usurping and occupying entity cannot change its legal and historical realities.”

The Iranian foreign ministry also condemned Colombia’s recent recognition of the Israeli regime’s sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights, calling it a violation of the UN Charter and international law.

“Within this framework, the Colombian government’s recent decision to recognize the sovereignty of the Zionist regime over the occupied Golan Heights is completely rejected and condemned.

And constitutes a clear violation of the fundamental principles of the Charter of the United Nations and international law concerning respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of states,” the statement also read.

It noted that such an action also conflicts with the recognized principle of international law prohibiting recognition of the effects of unlawful acts and entails international responsibility of the Colombian government.

While emphasizing the legal, moral and humanitarian obligation of all governments, particularly Muslim countries, to help Palestinians achieve their right to self-determination and freedom from the Zionist regime‘s occupation, apartheid and colonialism.

The Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs recalled the responsibility of the UN Security Council to stop the occupation and relentless aggression of the Zionist regime against occupied Palestine, Lebanon, Syria and other countries in the region.

The statement went on to note that the Palestinian issue remains the most important humanitarian and moral subject of the contemporary world, which began in 1948 with the creation of a fabricated entity in the historic land of Palestine and, through its cancerous expansion, has made the entire West Asia region and the world insecure.

“There is no doubt that the comprehensive support of the United States and certain Western countries, including Britain, France, Germany and Canada, for the genocidal Zionist regime has been the main factor behind its impunity and has led to the continuation and intensification of its expansionism and crimes in the region,” the statement pointed out. 

The Islamic Republic of Iran, while reiterating its principled position in support of the legitimate struggle of the Palestinian people to liberate their land from occupation, strongly condemns any attempt to marginalize the Palestinian issue, the Iranian foreign ministry concluded. (RT.com)

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Of Uganda’s 20 confirmed cases, 15 were imported from neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo), while five were locally acquired, the Ugandan government has said. The World Health Organization (WHO) reported no new infections after June 21 and said 18 patients recovered, with four health workers among those        infected.

The epidemic remains active in DR Congo, where the Health Ministry reported 3,262 confirmed infections and 1,437 deaths as of July 28. Nearly 90% of cases have been recorded in war-torn Ituri Province, which borders Uganda and South Sudan.

In a statement published on X, the East African country’s Health Minister Chris Baryomunsi said “Uganda is officially Ebola free” after the last patient with a locally transmitted infection was discharged on June 16.

“Unlike previous Ebola outbreaks that informed the current 42-day declaration policy, Uganda’s 2026 Ebola outbreak arose from a fully documented importation event,” he stated.

In a separate statement cited by Reuters, Baryomunsi said the declaration followed the “successful completion” of 42 days of monitoring that began upon the patient’s discharge.

The WHO, however, said Uganda’s 42-day countdown should have begun on July 16 after the last confirmed patient tested negative twice and was discharged. The agency said the outbreak could be declared over if no new cases emerged during that period.

Uganda has experienced several Ebola outbreaks since its first recorded epidemic in 2000, which infected 425 people and killed 224. Its previous outbreak, caused by the Sudan virus, ended in April 2025 after 14 confirmed probable cases and four deaths.

The Health Ministry has said the latest outbreak differed from previous epidemics because the source and route of the imported infections were known. It added that all “transmission chains were completely characterized and reconstructed, and all identified contacts were institutionally quarantined and completed the mandatory 21-day follow-up without evidence of further transmission.”             (RT.com)

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Malian government spokesperson Issa Ousmane Coulibaly said on July 10 that the West African nation would allow its ambassador to return to Algiers as part of measures aimed at the “renewal of relations of cooperation and friendship” with Algeria.

Bamako has also decided to reopen its national airspace to all civilian and military aircraft originating from or destined for Algeria, Coulibaly said in a statement.

Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune confirmed on July 11 that the country’s ambassador would return to Mali.

Tebboune said the decision reflected his “steadfast and resolute commitment to restoring Algerian-Malian relations to their natural historical trajectory, based on mutual respect,” according to a statement published by state news agency APS.

Relations between the two African nations  deteriorated  in  April  2025 after Algeria  said it had shot down a Malian surveillance drone for allegedly violating its airspace. Bamako rejected the accusation and said the aircraft was destroyed over Mali.

Tensions had been mounting since Mali withdrew from a 2015 peace agreement with northern separatist groups that was mediated by Algeria. The Malian authorities later accused Algiers of supporting armed groups, a claim the Algerian government denied.

The diplomatic fallout extended to Mali’s Alliance of Sahel States (AES) partners, Niger and Burkina Faso, which also recalled their ambassadors from Algeria during the dispute.

In recent months, however, Algeria has moved to repair ties with its southern neighbors. In February, Niger agreed with Algeria to restart work on the long-delayed Trans-Saharan Gas Pipeline, a project designed to transport Nigerian gas through Niger and Algeria to Europe.

Algeria, Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, all former French colonies, have troubled relations with France due to alleged interference. The AES countries have accused Paris of failing to respect their sovereignty and supporting the militants behind a longstanding jihadist insurgency in the Sahel.

Algeria’s ties with Paris have also been strained by historical grievances, France’s position on Western Sahara and migration disputes. (RT.com)

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The Council of Ministers announced the establishment of the Malian Office for Precious Substances on July 7, following a decision by the cabinet in March as part of efforts to centralize and secure sales in the sector.

The authorities said the measure is part of the implementation of the 2023 Mining Code and a local content law, aimed at reinforcing state sovereignty over the value chain of precious substances.

Gold from artisanal and small-scale mining occupies a strategic place in Mali’s economy, providing foreign exchange, tax revenue, and jobs for two million people across 350 to 400 sites, the government said. However, the sector still faces challenges, including smuggling and gaps in recorded flows.

Mali is Africa’s fourth leading gold producer, according to World Gold Council data, which put the country’s 2025 output at 82.9 tons, behind Ghana, South Africa and Burkina Faso.

Official statistics show Mali produced 72.2 tons of gold in 2022, including six tons from artisanal mining, generating 763 billion CFA francs ($1.27 billion) for the state budget.

Mali’s gold exports climbed to about 2.75 trillion CFA francs ($4.81 billion) in 2025, compared with 1.61 trillion CFA francs the previous year, according to Reuters, citing the national statistics institute Instat.

The reform comes as Bamako seeks to increase state revenue from mining. The 2023 Mining Code allows the state and local investors to hold up to 35% in new mining projects.

Canadian miner Barrick and Australia’s Resolute Mining have faced direct disputes with Bamako under the government’s push to extract more revenue from the gold sector.

Other operators, including Canada’s B2Gold, British firm Hummingbird Resources, and London-headquartered Endeavour Mining, have reached agreements with the state to align parts of their operations with Mali’s revised mining framework.

Several of Mali’s neighbors have also moved to tighten control over mineral resources. Burkina Faso has expanded state purchases of artisanal gold through its National Precious Substances Company.

Last year, Niger nationalized the country’s only industrial gold mine, accusing its Australian-owned operator McKinel Resources Limited of “grave contractual breaches.” Ghana created a state gold board last year to regulate small-scale gold exports, while Guinea banned raw gold exports in June to boost local refining. (RT.com)

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The pledge was unveiled during the Next Steps Conference, where the Dutch and German ambassadors presented Ghanaian President John Mahama with a catalog of the items set to be repatriated. The catalog, however, has not yet been made publicly available.

In a post on X, Ablakwa welcomed the move, describing it as “the positive conduct of restitution we are beginning to witness from our international partners in Europe since the adoption of the historic Ghana-led UN Resolution.”

The conference also saw Denmark acknowledge its role in the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen apologized for the country’s involvement and pledged support for preserving the forts and castles built by Denmark in present-day Ghana, saying the effort would help safeguard historical memory, promote truth-telling, and prevent similar injustices from being repeated.

Speaking at the conference, Ghana’s president also announced the creation of three international bodies aimed at advancing reparatory justice: the Global Advisory Panel on Reparatory Justice, the Expert Panel on the Restitution of Cultural Artefacts, and the Global Legal Panel on Reparatory Justice.

According to Mahama, the groups will help develop practical pathways for restitution, historical accountability, and legal redress.

“We do not seek to reopen old wounds. We seek to heal those wounds,” he said. “We do not seek division. We seek justice, understanding, and reconciliation grounded in truth”.

The initiative follows a Ghana-sponsored UN General Assembly resolution adopted in March that recognized the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade as “the gravest crime against humanity.”

The push for restitution has gained momentum in recent years. In February, Cambridge University formally transferred ownership of 116 Benin Bronzes and other artifacts to Nigeria. The physical return of most of the objects is expected to be completed by the end of this year.

The same month, Paris returned the sacred Djidji Ayokwe talking drum to Cote d’Ivoire. The drum had been taken during the colonial period in 1916 and held in France for more than a century. (RT.com)

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The measure follows talks between the president and industrial and artisanal mining operators, as well as gold buying offices, on June 19, and takes effect immediately.

“Any operator who, after the expiry of this deadline, continues to export raw gold will have its license suspended, its mining agreement terminated, and will answer for its actions before Guinean justice,” Doumbouya warned, according to his office.

Guinea holds significant gold reserves and ranks as the sixth-largest producer in Africa, with production of 69.3 tons in 2025, according to the World Gold Council. The former French colony is also the world’s leading producer of bauxite, accounting for around 33.2% of global output in 2024, U.S. Geological Survey data shows.

President Mamadi Doumbouya said Guinea has “unfortunately been among the poorest nations in the world,” despite being “one of the richest lands in Africa.”

He said the country’s “gold leaves its soil every day in raw form, loaded onto planes, taken to foreign refineries to be processed” and sold elsewhere, while Guinea “receives crumbs.” 

“I put an end to this today. Guinean gold will be melted in Guinea, certified in Guinea, valued in Guinea before being exported to international markets,” he declared.

The government said the measure is designed to boost local value addition and accelerate industrialization in a country where mining remains the backbone of the economy.

Under the new framework, refining is expected to take place at the Nimba Gold Refinery in Gbessia, a state-backed facility in the capital, Conakry. The plant is expected to process up to 2,000 kg of gold per day and an estimated monthly capacity of 520 tons. It is designed to produce internationally certified bullion and handle industrial waste streams containing precious metals, according to the presidency.

Doumbouya, who first came to power in 2021 after a military takeover and later won the presidency in an election last December, has also tightened oversight of Guinea’s bauxite sector, revoking and reassigning mining concessions while pushing for greater local processing.

Similar policies have been rolled out elsewhere in Africa in recent years. Zimbabwe, the continent’s leading lithium producer, has restricted exports of unprocessed lithium concentrates, while Tanzania and Uganda have already banned exports of unrefined minerals and metals, including gold and copper.

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Speaking at the plenary session of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin, Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev and Chinese Vice President Han Zheng, Hassan highlighted Africa’s growing demographic and economic weight.

“By 2050, one in four human beings on this planet will be African,” she said in her opening remarks. “Africa will be the only continent still adding workers to the global labor force on a large scale. Africa will host nine of the world’s 20 fastest-growing economies.”

Hassan also pointed to the potential of the African Continental Free Trade Area, saying that once fully implemented it would become the world’s largest market by population. The agreement, signed in 2018, seeks to create a continent-wide free trade zone by easing the movement of goods, services, and investment across all 55 African Union member states.

UN projections show the global population reaching 9.66 billion by 2050, with Africa accounting for roughly 2.5 billion people.

By contrast, populations in many other regions are expected to decline due to persistently low birth rates and aging societies. Europe’s population is projected to fall from around 744 million to 703 million in the same period.

According to UN data, fertility rates across Europe averaged about 1.4 births per woman in 2023, well below the replacement level of 2.1.

The trend has also become a major concern for Russia, where the fertility rate stood at 1.4 in 2024. In response, Moscow has introduced a range of measures aimed at boosting births, including direct payments to mothers, expanded maternity benefits, and additional financial support for families.

Starting June 8, Russia will also launch new tax relief programs for families with two or more children. (RT.com)

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