Vladimir Putin will visit two small former Soviet states in central Asia this week, Russian state television reported on Sunday, in what would be the Russian president's first known trip abroad since ordering the invasion of Ukraine, news agency Reuters reported. Russia had spoken about strengthening ties with Asian powers like China, India and Iran, faced with Western hostility over the Ukrainian invasion.
Putin last week had highlighted the need for the BRICS nations to work jointly to build a multipolar world has become crucial as never before, as he slammed the "thoughtless and selfish actions" of certain states that has hurt the global economy, in an apparent reference to the US and its Western allies. In his address to the 14th BRICS summit via video link, Putin also pointed out that the five countries—Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa—can effectively work together to ensure international stability and security, sustainable growth and prosperity and the well-being of their people.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa took part in the annual summit hosted by Chinese President Xi Jinping. "We have repeatedly said that only together we can solve such problems as conflict resolution, combating terrorism, organised crime, including the criminal use of new technologies, combating climate change, and the spread of dangerous infections," Putin stressed.
The Russian president said that the West's selfish attempts to blame the entire world for its own mistakes in macroeconomics led to a crisis which can be surmounted only with honest and mutually beneficial cooperation. "Only on the basis of honest and mutually beneficial cooperation it is possible to seek the way out of this crisis situation that has shaped in the global economy due to the thoughtless and selfish actions of certain states who, using financial mechanisms, essentially shift the blame for their own mistakes in the macroeconomic policy to the entire world, he emphasised.
