• This year’s BRICS 2024 conference will be held in Russia where Palestine’s State President Mahmoud Abbas is expected to be in attendance.
• Palestinian State presence at the BRICS would solely be in the capacity of an observer with further plans for a meeting to focus exclusively on Palestine.
The State of Palestine’s President Mahmoud Abbas has confirmed that Palestine is expected to attend the annual BRICS conference, which will be held in Russia’s city of Kazan this October.
Putin took over the BRICS’ year-long presidency on January 1st, 2024. Russia’s presidency features various events, with the summit in Kazanthe key event for the leaders of BRICS member nations to attend.
In discussions he held with President Putin of Russia; Abbas confirmed:
"We have discussed our vision regarding the possible development of events in the nearest future and what it could lead to during such complicated times.”
Through personal meetings and telephone conversations, Abbas has highlighted the continued need to strengthen relations between Palestine and Russia.
"We have certainly also discussed bilateral relations, because we enjoy a very long-standing strategic relationship with Russia... We have discussed perspectives for their further development."
Within their talks, Abbas is said to have also spoken to Putin regarding seeking support from BRICS member states.
"We have also discussed BRICS. We have reached a verbal agreement that Palestine would be invited [to attend] in the ‘outreach’ format.”
Abbas is hopeful that within this format, a meeting could be organised that would be devoted exclusively to Palestine so that all countries would voice their views on the developments that are taking place in this area.
"It will all be as relevant as possible, considering the fact that the countries [who are members] of this association [BRICS] are all friendly to Palestine."
Among the member states of BRICS which Abbas calls “friendly” it is worth noting that some of these states have not been friends to their people, India, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, UAE to name the obvious. While China, Russia and India have not been kind to the Muslim Ummah, to put it mildly.
Since its inception in 2006, the number of BRICS members has increased over two stages. In 2011, South Africa joined the original group, which included Brazil, Russia, India, and China.
On January 1, 2024, five new members officially entered BRICS, namely Egypt, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Ethiopia.
The Palestinian leader also discussed issues that were of concern to both parties were also openly discussed.
"Our meeting lasted for almost two hours, and you can imagine that there were no forbidden issues among us as we had discussed all issues concerning both parties."
In the month that would mark a year since the genocide began, all Abbas can do is be hopeful that the indiscriminate mass murder of his people would have ceased well before then.
