Valdai Club

Russia and other countries such as China and India provide African states with an enormous opportunity to diversify their economic relations and reduce their dependence on the West. The fact that many of the emerging powers set no conditionalities is also an advantage and one which African leaders hold great store by.

Global headlines in the run-up to the 9th BRICS summit were dominated by the North Korean missile crisis and the stand-off in Doklam, high in the Himalayas, in Bhutan. The former had a direct bearing on the interests of Russia and China, as they share a border with North Korea, but positioned them on the same side in calling for a de-escalation in tensions between the US and North Korea. In the case of the latter though, it pitted two BRICS members, India and China, against each other.