MOSCOW, September 9. /TASS/. BRICS countries held an extraordinary online summit, the EU seeks to tighten anti-Russian sanctions, and NATO launched exercises near Turkey’s coast. These stories topped Tuesday's headlines across Russia.
The introduction of secondary sanctions hampers the strengthening of trade ties between friendly countries, but this will not prevent further cooperation within BRICS, Brazilian leader Lula da Silva said on September 8, opening the group’s extraordinary online summit as chairman. Vladimir Putin also joined the event. Today, against the background of the "divide and rule" strategy of individual states, BRICS must demonstrate their commitment to boosting cooperation. According to Chinese President Xi Jinping, nations waging trade and tariff wars are inflicting a serious blow on the global economy. The Iranian president suggested creating a mechanism to counter sanctions, the South African leader called for reforming the WTO, while the Egyptian president questioned the current role of the United Nations altogether. However, overall, the leaders unanimously view BRICS as the main driver of reform in the system of international relations.
"WTO rules should be binding for the collective West too, including the United States, no matter how unrealistic it may sound at this stage. Otherwise, why does the rest of the world need it? After all, the United States and its allies created the WTO to force all other countries to comply with the West’s demands to open their markets. But as soon as opening Western markets became more profitable for non-Western countries, the West stopped following them. Thus, either all WTO members comply with the rules, or it will cease to exist," economist Valery Korneyev told Izvestia.
