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    CHAKWERA AT MAIDEN BRICS SUMMIT, TO TACKLE DEBT BURDEN

    Malawi President Dr Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera has made history for being first President to attend Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) summit slated for Tomorrow 22 August, 2023.

    Economic Experts have already commended Malawi leader for making such bold decision.

    The president is searching for opportunities for Malawi in his quest to change the economic landscape.

    Malawi is currently struggling with deficit for its forex reserve which has led into commodity low stocks such as fuel products.

    This is very good reasons that Malawi needs some new friends to bail the country out of its dire economic pressure.

    On Saturday, Chakwera arrived in South Africa ahead of the five-member grouping meeting which officially opens on Tuesday, August, 22 at Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg.

    President Chakwera arrived through Lanseria International Airport in the company of First Lady Monica Chakwera and was welcomed by Malawi’s High Commissioner to South Africa Stella Ndau and other South African delegates.

    On arrival the president said the summit will provide the country an opportunity to engage development partners on ways of addressing debts.

    “We will champion our cause with emerging and fellow developing markets through multilateral cooperation to rebalance the world’s economic and political tectonics and make the global system conducive for inclusive growth,” he said.

    The summit is being held under the theme “BRICS-Africa: Partnership for Mutually Accelerated Growth, Sustainable Development and Inclusive Multilateralism”.

    High on the agenda for the summit among others will include discussions on expanding the grouping’s membership to include more countries.

    So far a number of African States have expressed interest to join the grouping and they include Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Tunisia, Senegal and Egypt.

    China’s President Xi Jinping will attend the BRICS leaders summit in South Africa as he makes a state visit to the country.

    “At the invitation of President of the Republic of South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa, President Xi Jinping will attend the 15th BRICS Summit to be held in Johannesburg, South Africa, and pay a state visit to South Africa from August 21 to 24,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said in an online statement.

    The visit will be Xi’s second international trip of 2023, after he travelled to Russia in March. The Chinese president previously visited South Africa in 2018 as he sought to enhance his country’s diplomatic and economic ties in Africa.

    The five BRICS countries will meet to discuss how to turn a loose club of nations accounting for a quarter of the global economy into a geopolitical force that can challenge the developed world’s dominance.

    Russian President Vladimir Putin, who faces an international arrest warrant over alleged war crimes in Ukraine, will take part by video rather than attending in person.

    A total of 69 countries have been invited to the summit in South Africa, including all African states, and expansion is expected to be high on the agenda. Countries in Africa have shown interest in joining the group either formally or informally.

    China, seeking to expand its geopolitical influence amid its ongoing rivalry with the United States, has said it “welcomes more like-minded partners to join the ‘BRICS family’ at an early date.”

    Russia also supports expansion, while Brazil has resisted, fearing it could undermine the group’s stature. India is on the fence.

    The term BRIC was first coined by a Goldman Sachs economist to describe the rise of Brazil, Russia, India and China in 2001. Those countries had their first summit in 2009 in Russia, and when South Africa joined the following year, the group became known as BRICS.

    BRICS countries account for more than 40 percent of the world’s population and about 26 percent of the global economy.

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