Attending the meeting on the Russian side were Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov, Deputy Prime Ministers Alexander Novak and Alexei Overchuk, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office and Special Presidential Representative for Financial and Economic Cooperation with BRICS States and Interaction with the New Development Bank Maxim Oreshkin, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office and Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov, Presidential Aide Yury Ushakov, Minister of Natural Resources and Environment, Chair of the Russian side of the Joint Intergovernmental Committee on Trade and Economic Cooperation between Russia and South Africa Alexander Kozlov, Minister of Economic Development Maxim Reshetnikov, Minister of Finance Anton Siluanov, Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina, Director of the Federal Service for Military Technical Cooperation Dmitry Shugayev, Head of the Federal Service for the Oversight of Consumer Protection and Welfare Anna Popova, Chair of the Russian Association of Fertiliser Producers Andrey Guryev, CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund Kirill Dmitriev, and CEO of the State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom Alexei Likhachev.
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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Mr President, friends,
We are delighted to welcome you all to Kazan, Russia.
We are grateful for your decision to take part in the BRICS Summit. Tonight, we will attend the opening ceremony together.
This year, Russia assumed the BRICS chairmanship, taking over from South Africa, and we have built our work taking into account the results achieved at the Johannesburg summit. Our focus has been on the seamless integration of new participants into the multi-level architecture of BRICS. In close contact with our South African friends, we have worked on coordinating the modalities for establishing the partner state status.
The relevant agencies of our countries collaborated in the financial sector to expand the use of national currencies in mutual settlements and to create an independent payment system.
Our bilateral relations are based on the principles of a comprehensive strategic partnership, equality, and mutual respect. Our political dialogue is progressing, and our foreign policy departments and security councils are actively communicating. Interparliamentary cooperation has been established.
Trade and economic ties between Russia and the Republic of South Africa are generally positive. Following a brief dip, mutual trade volumes have started to increase, rising by three percent in January-August 2024. Of course, we need to work jointly on some aspects in order to expand and diversify mutual trade and investment. Promising spheres of cooperation include energy, industry, agriculture, science and innovation.
Russia and the Republic of South Africa closely coordinate their efforts on the international stage to establish a fair multipolar world order.
Russia attaches special significance to strengthening relations with African countries. Collaborative work is underway to implement joint agreements approved at the Russia-Africa Summit in St Petersburg, notably a declaration and an action plan until 2026.
We look forward to hosting the head of your foreign policy agency in Sochi for the first ministerial conference of the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum, scheduled for November 9–10.
Once again, welcome to Kazan, Mr President.
President of the Republic of South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa: Thank you very much. Thank you very much for your kind words of welcome.
It's a real joy and a pleasure to be here in Kazan, in Russia.
And we'd like to congratulate you for hosting and being the president of BRICS, having taken over from us. As South Africa, we are sure that you will be able to chair our meeting and our summit so that BRICS, as the enlarged BRICS body, will continue growing from strength to strength.
We also do look forward, of course, to this evening where we have been invited, and also to the summit itself, to participate with all other countries under your leadership to deal with matters that are of such great importance in geopolitical terms and everything that is happening around the world, but also on matters that have to do with trade, with climate change, with peace and security as well. So, we are delighted indeed to be here.
We're also delighted to be here to brief you and others on the journey that we have embarked upon as South Africa. We've formed a government of national unity following our elections in May of this year. So we will have time, as I briefed you on the telephone, but we will have time to talk more about that and inform you how that whole process of governing South Africa with a number of other parties is evolving as we have sought to unite the country, to stabilise the country politically. And we're rather pleased that with your support in every respect we've been able to reach this point in the history of our country.
So, we continue to see Russia as a valued ally, as a valued friend, who supported us right from the beginning, from the days of our struggle against apartheid right through to now. So, we're really delighted to be here and to know that we are going to have important discussions here in Kazan within the BRICS family. So, thank you very much for welcoming us. Thank you.
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