“Colleagues, friends!
This is the first time we meet in this composition at the 10th BRICS Parliamentary Forum. First of all, I would like to greet our BRICS comrades who participated in all previous meetings: our colleagues from Brazil, India, and China. And of course, today I would like to congratulate our new friends and welcome them here, our BRICS colleagues, who have joined the organization this year and are here with us today: our colleagues from Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, representatives of the United Arab Emirates.
It is really great that you came here with large delegations. We know many of you, and this is a new opportunity for us to meet and discuss issues and problems. The increasing number of BRICS participants just proves the demand for a multipolar and just world order.
Our country has always stood for strengthening [the role of] states of Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East in international affairs. We see that now more and more countries seek to strengthen their sovereignty, national and cultural identity. This process is irreversible. It will only gain momentum. People want to plan their lives, their future. No one is going to give this to someone, at someone else’s mercy. Moreover, we know that there are a lot of examples that show that subordination to the hegemony of one country leads to irreparable consequences and the destruction of entire states.
People once lived happily and prosperously, but after they lost their sovereignty, their independence, lost their culture, traditions, states went into decline and were later destroyed – I mean Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan and even European countries. But this is not the path that every nation would like to choose for its descendants. Therefore, such organizations as BRICS have great prospects, since relations within the association are built on the principles of respect, friendship, and non-interference in the internal affairs of sovereign states, and, of course, sovereignty, traditions, culture of each state are protected.
Therefore, when we talk about BRICS, we see that the organization turns into one of the key pillars of the multipolar world, which, as we see, begins to shape. The demand for it is enormous, and every country, every nation wants the world to be fairer. That is why all of us who represent our citizens, expressing their will, should on our part, do everything possible to uphold the principles of mutually beneficial cooperation in international affairs, respect for national traditions, and do everything possible to ensure that this is the basis for building future international relations between all countries.
Only this basis can be used for building an architecture that meets the needs of citizens representing different countries: large, small, rich and not so rich. But every nation wants to determine its own future. Therefore, when we talk about BRICS, this organization implements precisely such tasks. And that is why it is so attractive, and we see that many countries want to join it.
Over the years of its existence, the organization has turned into one of the largest economic centers that represent the interests of the world society. Our countries represent more than a third of the world territories and 45% of the Earth’s population. The BRICS share of global GDP at purchasing power parity has risen to 36.8%, and it is now bigger than the G7's share — 29%, according to recent data.
And this gap will only increase. Three BRICS states — China, India and Russia — are among the top 5 countries in terms of GDP at PPP. The major difference of BRICS is its willingness to build relations on equal, mutually beneficial terms to improve the quality of life of the citizens of each BRICS member state.
In this regard, it is important, within the parliamentary dimension, to work more actively to implement the decisions taken by the leaders of our countries, to bring our cooperation to a new level. And the parliamentary dimension should make its own contribution to achieve these goals and solve problems.
Friends!
There are new challenges in the world. The example of the Russian Federation, China, Iran, and a number of other states, shows that Washington and Brussels are trying to halt the development of other countries by introducing illegal sanctions, declaring trade wars, stealing gold and foreign exchange reserves, using international payment systems and the USD as instruments of political pressure.
Over 21 thousand illegal sanctions have been imposed against the Russian Federation over the past 10 years. Despite this, our country is getting stronger, the economy has managed to adapt and shows strong growth. In 2023 it was 3.6%, and in the first months of 2024 it exceeded 4%.
The sanctions had a boomerang effect on their initiators: the United States has lost its economic leading position. All attempts to get it back, including by weakening the European Union, have failed. The dollar loses its status as the world's reserve currency. To ensure their financial security, sovereign countries, primarily BRICS member states, have begun to stop using the toxic dollar. Its share in export and import transactions within the framework of the organization in 2023 was only 28.7%. We have largely restructured our relations and started to use national currencies more.
We have just discussed these issues with our colleagues from Iran, and earlier we had negotiations with our colleagues from India and other countries. Of course, we should do everything to build our relations on the national currencies’ basis. This is not only reliable, but will also develop our national economies. The dollar was turned into an instrument of political speculation. Entire nations cannot be made hostage to these machinations, used by the United States throughout the globe to achieve its interests.
Our task is to create legal mechanisms to protect the financial and economic sovereignty of our states, help develop inter-bank cooperation, and help increase, as I already said, the share of national currencies in mutual payments. And in this regard, of course, for our part, we must [do] everything possible so that, within the framework of harmonization of legislation, formation of a rule of law we need, we could develop the economies of our countries more effectively through cooperation, by building relations between our countries. We should try to do this, because this is the issue [which] is key for us, for legislators, that we should implement.
That will be a contribution to the development of international relations and the building of a more just world, because when it comes to creating a legal framework, of course, legislators should not stand aside: for our part, we should do everything possible to create the basis for more effective work and executive authorities, and, of course, when it comes to the harmonization of national legal systems. This is important for us to more effectively counter such common threats as terrorism, extremism, transnational crime, drug and weapons trafficking.
The agenda of our inter-parliamentary cooperation also includes issues of interaction in such fields as energy, science and new technologies, including artificial intelligence. It would be right to exchange lawmaking experience in these areas. Just the day before, with our Chinese colleagues, we held joint meetings of a high-level inter-parliamentary commission, and this format once again proved that we can do a lot if we focus on the final result, on solving the tasks that our countries, our states expect from us.
And in this case, our relations will develop even more effectively, because today is not a time when we can only know each other better, talk about how we can treat each other — today is a time of challenges and solving problems, overcoming and addressing issues that could affect the well-being and future of states, thus, we should try to find such formats of cooperation that will contribute to the development of our relations at the inter-parliamentary level. And in this regard, of course, it would be right for us to exchange lawmaking experience in those areas that could mutually provide great opportunities for solving problems and achieving goals that our states face.
Colleagues, it is necessary to continue to develop humanitarian contacts, cultural, educational, and tourist exchanges. When we talk about tourism, people choose a country, and this says a lot. It must be said that all those who are here today can agree that it is really important and significant when our citizens have a positive attitude towards our states, when people think about economic and security issues when they decide which country to visit. And we can only say that it would also be right to think what legislative decisions we can adopt to make it easier for people to travel, visit other states, learn more about culture, and our structures within the parliamentary dimension could make a good contribution to this.
There is no trust without dialogue, there is no development without trust in the face of modern challenges and threats. We should develop common approaches to address global security issues. Together we can do a lot. Thank you very much for your attention.
I hope that we will be able to communicate again, but, of course, I would like to emphasize once again that within the framework of the parliamentary dimension we can do a lot to develop relations between our countries, to develop this great, new, growing BRICS association, which does not already have enough letters in the abbreviation because the number of participants is increasing. And today they are here around this table, but in the future, it will probably be necessary to have a bigger table where all the participants [could] sit, because BRICS has something that other organizations do not have: its goals are supported by an increasing number of states. Thank you very much!”
