Ryzhenkov emphasizes that Belarus envisions BRICS as strategic platform for future

Global attention is fixed on the decisions made at the BRICS summit. Participants from the alliance are currently synchronizing their efforts in Rio de Janeiro.

For the first time, Belarus is participating in the forum at a high level, in the capacity of a partner organization, ready to collaborate and jointly build a multipolar and just world.

First, let us clarify what BRICS is. Primarily, it is a dialogue platform. The most crucial criterion for participation in the alliance is support for its principles and approaches. BRICS comprises countries whose interests align across politics, economics, and security. Unlike the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), BRICS does not have a formal charter.

In other words, BRICS is an informal club. The grouping includes ten nations, which together host nearly half of the world’s population and account for over a third of the global economy.

Additionally, there are twelve countries serving as partners. Saudi Arabia has been invited as a guest nation. Moreover, more than twenty countries have expressed interest in engaging in dialogue within BRICS. Belarus received partner status at the beginning of this year, and for us, this high-level summit is the first in our history.

Under the instruction of the President, the Belarusian delegation is led by the Minister of Foreign Affairs. In his speech at the expanded session, Maxim Ryzhenkov highlighted that Belarus sees BRICS as a strategic platform for the future.

Contemporary global challenges demand that countries not only strengthen their internal potential but also adopt a genuinely multilateral approach in international affairs. At the 17th BRICS summit, key initiatives were agreed upon to establish a Global Financial Security Network.

According to Maxim Ryzhenkov, the organization’s initiatives clearly outline a course toward constructing a financial architecture rooted in sovereignty, mutual trust, and technological independence. Official Minsk fully supports these proposals. The agenda also includes questions of global cooperation in health, climate change, and artificial intelligence governance. Dialogue within BRICS is fundamentally about mutually beneficial cooperation—each side stands to gain, experts believe.

Nikita Mendkovich, political scientist and head of the Eurasian Analytical Club (Russia), remarked: “For Belarus, deepening its membership in BRICS is strategically vital. Currently, Minsk faces aggressive Western sanctions that hinder its operations in external markets—mainly due to US control over the dollar system and banking transactions. In this context, developing cooperation with BRICS becomes crucial: it offers an opportunity to access international markets through neutral channels, bypassing American dollar mechanisms. For Belarus, this is the most promising and appropriate path for developing foreign economic relations. Belarus is a technologically advanced country, and its participation can be valuable for BRICS both in terms of competencies and in fostering Belarus's own development as an industrial hub. I believe that representatives from a country with strong engineering and technical expertise can contribute meaningfully to many discussions, including those on modern technologies.”