so sidhant uh when you also spoke of the alternate payment mechanism this is very interesting because on the one hand you have India which has uh very good relationships trade relationships with the US also the UAE with the recent AI deal uh that it has struck with the United States uh and on the other hand you have countries like Iran and Russia who perhaps want an alternate payment method so as to uh enable uh free trade amongst themselves and uh sort of contest the sanctions that have been levied on them so how do you see
you know how do you see a consensus being reached upon like we have discussed how the members they are not a monolith they are a varied motly mix how do you perhaps see a consensus being reached upon in this and will there be further discussion on it after prime minister after President Putin's statement about it recently well uh let me give you a brief about how did this idea of the alternative payments mechanism came into being uh in 2022 when the war started in Ukraine Russia was removed from the Swift banking system now Russia says
it says Western dominated and of course uh because of that Russia is facing lot of difficulties in fact we have been Von team has been in Russia twice this year and uh here we cannot use Master Card we cannot use Visa you need to have cash whether it's dollar whether it's Euro or whether it is Ruble so that led the Russian initiative basically in the bricks grouping that we need to have alternate payments mechanism for this the focus is on bricks Bridge bricks pay as well and also conversation on trading in National currencies whether there
is a consensus or not the clear answer is there is no consensus within the grouping because for financial systems to work together they need to trust each other the central banks of all the bricks countries which as you pointed out is a very diverse set of groupings whether an Indian Central Bank will be Keen to have very Frank conversation with the Chinese Central Bank is right now difficult but India of course has been focusing on trading in National currency and that of course is the current view here in the bricks grouping sidan you also briefly
mentioned about uh you know the UN not being there uh while so how concrete is this grouping in uh concrete specific terms uh in the absence of a solid system like the IMF that the UN has and should a comparison be drawn with the United Nations at all United Nations all well bricks is a grouping which is reflective of the times we are in we are in times where there is uncertainty there are conflicts uh the optimism that emerged after the end of the World War II in last century in N 1940s the emergence of
Institutions back then uh has faded away and this is a new world order now the problem is nobody knows who is governing this new world order because essentially the UN is seen defunct it has not reformed with the time the fact that the world's most populated country and the fifth largest economy on the planet India is not present at the high table at the United Nations security Council reflects that the UN is going in a direction which is basic Bally directionless so essentially coming to the groupings there is Rise of number of plurilateral and uh
small groupings like bricks whether it is SEO whether it is quad as well in fact quad is something that is doing lot of joint initiatives and remember quad does not has a Secretariat it does not has a legal body essentially it's not an alliance but still four countries are working together the similar sentiment applies here in the bricks grouping as well uh bricks does not has a Secretariat it does not has a central body the fact that there are uh coordination between the countries there are approximately nine countries who are member of the grouping now
shows that there is a will for these countries to work together and India and China and Russia together in any grouping in fact r i the rig grouping together is a significant grouping the talks are there to uh again restart it so the group of course has core as Russia India China the bricks grouping so it shows that how this group has uh got the leverage and has the potential to be a key brick of the world order the new world order in fact San you very keenly read uh how President Putin was seated between
the Chinese president and the Indian Prime Minister we will speak a little more about what you've been able to gather with how the dignitaries met each other their body langu and the like but let me first quickly ask you about the isolation bit on Russia's part that you mentioned have Putin been able to establish that Russia perhaps indeed is not isolated well that's a clear message from day one we all have been talking about while the West has been saying that Russia is isolated the sentiment here is quite different I'm right now in uh the
hall the media Hall where uh the world's media the bricks country's media is present in full force let me show you the first view of the media center and that will help you get a view of uh the number of pres people present here the fact that so many people is there's not a single seat left in fact to sit so that shows that how much dynamism is there for uh the member countries to uh cover this important uh event here in Kazan it is seen as a milestone for Russia diplomacy as well because remember
after 2022 war that started there was increased pressure by uh the West on Russia and Russia was looking for more friends more allies and Asia provided that China and of course India two large countries in terms of geography in terms of population in terms of their size are good friends of Russia is a big big boost to the Russian president Vladimir Putin and to Russia as well in fact India is one of the largest intak of Russian energy Uh Russian oil and this despite the pressure uh from the West is of course is a win-win
for India and Russia for China as well we have seen positive comments from uh two sides several times in fact yesterday there was a bilateral of the Russian President Vladimir Putin both with the Indian Prime Minister NRA Modi and the Chinese president Xi Jinping uh today of course there will be more conversations at the Summit as well so uh the focus of course for Russia for Moscow has been to send a message to London to Washington to Capitals in Europe that it has allies especially in global South as well there is a significant presence of
global South uh leaders of several countries present here uh represented as well in fact let me talk about the Indian subcontinent India of course is the founding member and naturally is present the Indian Prime Minister present but from the Indian subcontinent there is increase in trust by countries like Bangladesh and Pakistan to become uh members we really do not know what's the status um of course it is a political call as well but example like Sri Lanka the Sri Lankan president the new president was invited by President Putin to be present here in uh Kazan
but because of the upcoming uh elections the Parliamentary elections he has sent the foreign secretary she's present here representing Sri Lanka at the bricks plus meeting so uh increase interest by the world not only in the bricks grouping but increase interest in continuing their engagement with Russia uh do tell you while you did speak about uh you know how the body language of the dignitaries uh you very interestingly also showed us images of the media that is present there which in fact is reflective of if whether or not this is to be perceived as the
New World Order what is the extent and the magnitude of it uh what can you tell us about the coverage of this particular event as you see around you tell us the ground perception around you how is the world looking at the 16th brick Summit 16th brick Summit well uh for that I need to again show you those visuals and uh let my camera person show you the visuals of this media uh Center that of course showcases the presence of uh the world's media media obviously the member countries media but also uh the presence of
other media from other countries I know the Japanese media is present I also know uh that other Western agencies are also present here and everyone is busy uh giving out the details about this important uh Summit which is happening and uh these images are in many ways for me reflective of a global order emergence of a new world order where bricks of course plays an important role there is of course world to W coverage here in Russia there is of course world wall coverage um in countries like China and India as well for the bricks
uh grouping and uh India is committed to this grouping in fact India being the founding member of the brics grouping has always been supportive of brics initiative there are several initiatives uh including of course initiative on satellites as well um in fact the emergence of the GP bricks grouping started uh with an analyst from Goldman Sachs coining this term way back in 2001 he clubbed the emerging economies together uh with uh acronym called The Brick and it was primarily an emerging uh economies Club it remains that as well uh but there is of course increased
indication of a political stance as well given the fact that world looks very divided in into West versus East especially after uh the outbreak of the Ukraine war all right thank you so much sadan subu our editor for foreign affairs at weon while it is a grouping of emerging economies as you say a serious Contender China giving competition to the United States uh two largest economies in the world perhaps thank you so much sadand for being with us on the broadcast [Music]
