more countries will be joining bricks during The Summit in Russia next month Russia's ambassador to South Africa says his country is ready to host the brick Summit and the issue of current Global challenges will dominate that particular Summit Sac News International editor sopi mcua spoke to Ambassador ala rashev Russia will be hosting the brick Summit in terms of state of Readiness uh is Russia ready for this important Gathering well yes as far as I know uh Kazan is the city that hosted uh a number of big scale events so the city of Kazan and uh
other organizations that are uh providing different elements uh in the organization of summit uh they are pretty well experienced in in this matter and uh we have all reasons to to believe that it will be uh a success uh from this organizational point of view what will be Russia's focus in relation to the summit maybe the theme well the theme of The Summit is strengthening multilateralism for just Global development and security and um um there are several topics that will be that usually uh attract International attention but uh of course leaders will have a number
of reports from all the different areas of uh bricks cooperation in particular in the three uh pillar areas policy and security uh economy and finance and uh cultural and humanitarian exchanges all bricks elements uh will report to the leaders they will consider reports take decisions uh but among those that I have mentioned uh with regard to the uh that can be viewed perhaps as the most important it's the expansion of bricks uh this is the first summit that the bricks uh will have in its expanded format already and uh um leaders at their Summit in
Johannesburg last year also tusked uh delegations to work on the modalities of the further expansion uh namely um creating creating a new category of partner States uh uh in particular and uh well just the modalities themselves but also procedures but also uh uh coordinating the list of potential candidates and uh we will see how delegations have coped with this very delicate very important matter uh then uh another area that usually attracts International attention is the finances of course uh that will be uh very interesting and very important uh to know what are the directions in
which bricks Works while we more or less know that uh but if there will be some some intermed intermediary results I would likely to see more expansion well it's it's a very delicate uh issue of course because there are 30 plus states that have uh uh made known their will to cooperate with bricks in this or that way from Full membership to some kind of Association um but um one of the primary if not the primary task for our chairmanship this year was to ensure a smooth uh integration of the new members because bricks is
already a very complicated mechanisms mechanism and uh there are more than uh 200 meetings held during the year basically a meeting per working day uh most of those uh are supposed to have taken place already by the time uh of the summit uh so the leader can discuss the results again uh and uh it is not only politically important like to show the political will to to be a fully fledged member of this uh entity uh but uh it requires a tremendous administrative effort as well and uh we we wanted to ensure that uh like
a seamless uh enter of the new members into the working already mechanisms we need uh to switch more uh to our national currencies this is a consensual uh you know thesis and uh we need to D dollarize our economic exchanges uh because there are so many economic sanctions imposed by the Western countries against uh bricks members and uh uh uh other countries of the global South and global east uh we we can say that they have weaponized the dollar they have weaponized Euro uh these uh recognized World reserved currencies so so uh apparently bricks members
the rest of the world the non West is simply compelled to move away from uh these currencies in um their exchanges let's talk about you also touched on the issue of security the Global Security the war in Ukraine is there even a slight possibility for peace talks so that there's an end to that or what are the you know issues that must be dealt with for both Ukraine and Russia to arrive at a situation where there can be positive uh discussions Paving way for peace talks and finally cessation of hostilities well uh of course there
is this possibility and um first of all I I I want to mention that uh Russia has never avoided negotiations peace talks with uh Ukrainian side and we have proven that uh in the first days of the special military operation uh in March 2022 when uh by the end of the month a kind of a treaty was almost ready and even Pari signed uh by uh uh the parties but then uh there was some kind of Western interference personified by the then prime minister of UK Boris Johnson who came to ke and said no talks
with the Russians keep fighting we will always support we will be with you till the very end and now um I don't think there is a you know a viable uh proposal of of Peace negotiations on the table but we've heard in recently a few statements from some of the western leaders that now is the time for negotiations but there's announcement that and statements that and messages Ukraine uh wants to use the missiles yes long range missiles so how do you no there are many many contradiction in in Ukrainian position in particular because uh quite
some time ago there was also a decree by President zalinski uh which prohibits uh uh Ukrainian officials to negotiate with Russian officials so uh negotiations at this time are Impossible by Ukrainian law but Ukraine is saying leave our territory we will uh be able to negotiate how do you respond this is not the starting point uh forign negotiations uh the the the yes there is this uh uh question why it is now the time uh why it wasn't the time a year ago or a year and a half ago uh it's it's interesting because uh
it's um I'm I'm curious to follow the logic behind these statements by the Western officials by Western leaders uh is it that they were certain in previous two and a half years that Russia is weak that Russia is uncapable that Russia will be dealt military defeat and so on and now is the time when they have seen that uh it is not the case and I think that all to to all military and even non-military experts it is clear that that Ukraine is losing so uh it's uh complicated situations situation and uh all the attempts
you know to strengthen somehow negotiating positions by Ukraine and so on it's uh to me are mostly irrelevant the issues that are supposed to be discussed and have not been on the table so far except for our direct talks with ukrainians at the in March 2022 is uh are the reasons are the core reasons so to speak of of this conflict uh and uh it is the situation uh with the human rights of the Russian speaking minority in Ukraine it is whether our strategic security interests will be taken into consideration after all by the West
beginning with the very simple thing NATO expansion but with uh other issues as well uh because uh the West has dismantled basically the disarmament uh system and arms control system so uh when uh uh future negotiators on the other side will be ready to tackle these issues I think uh then it will be time let's look at Russia and Africa uh particularly the Sahel region Russia is expanding in terms of activities but of concern is the issue of security and today we saw what happened in Mali in terms of the role of Russia on the
continent how do you respond to your critics that it's not an honest uh intention it's all about resources and who are the critics if Russia cannot be trusted on on the continent as I've been told several times lately who can I mean uh we we are only in those countries uh who have invited us those governments who are in need of uh certain results stemming from cooperation with Russia they benefit from it those who do not need it uh those are we are not there so um I think that uh in many areas uh African
leaders States and uh peoples actually appreciate Russian participation in uh uh the life in uh on on the African continent and uh we often play this stabilizing balancing role in terms of security military uh counterterrorist security but also uh food security and energy security the relationship with countries such as the United States of America is there possibility to improve their relationship because Russia is quite an important country globally the same with the Americans and when you have this tension smaller countries have no say and they're watching and there are talks of third world war and
all of that which is something that's I don't think it's possible but the reality is the global peace is threatened when the big powers are engaged in a t standoff well the uh main feature of the current situation and this tension between Russia and the West I think uh it is uh uh pretty understandable that it is caused by uh the desire for world dominance by by the west by the United States by Anglo Saxon World in particular so uh they are not going to relinquish this this influence that they have enjoyed for almost 500
years uh so easily this is why uh this kind of uh desperation with which they are arming Ukraine trying to harm Russia to inflict Russia strategic defeat and so on these are their stated goals in Ukraine uh so um it is basic it is it is not I think that that many people realize it now that the whole situation in Ukraine was constructed and it is not between Russians and ukrainians it is uh to be assessed from the geopolitical point of view it is a struggle uh for the multipolar war World on our side and
uh it is the the will to to preserve the current uh unipolar World from the other this is what is at stake in Ukraine in particular how will you describe the relationship between South Africa and Russia in terms of trade volumes as well but uh politically also well politically uh our Rel relationship ship uh is based on the very solid foundation of bilateral treaties that were concluded in this 30 years uh after the the first free election in in South Africa and uh according to these documents uh uh not only we're friends but we're strategic
partners and uh there is in term foundation for this and reason for this because uh our countries share basically the same views on uh what kind of world we would like to see to live in in the future what are the shortcomings of the present world we live in now uh and um stemming from from these big uh thesises uh we can develop our bilateral relationship you you rightfully have mentioned uh the trade volume I think that uh the well it is historically uh uh so that our economic relationship uh do not correspond in fact
to the level of political relations uh well but uh the potential is there we can do much better we know that uh we Russia want to be uh friends and partners with all African States uh we want to develop strengthen and expand and deepen our economic ties uh with all countries let's do business together uh that that is uh mutually beneficial e
