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Brics – the genie is well and truly out of the bottle
With the recent meeting in Kazan providing a glimpse of freedom for the global South, we must develop local, regional and international networks that can apply meaningful pressure on those who could steer this new grouping awry, writes ROGER McKENZIE
: (Left to right) Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Brazilian For

I WAS alone and noticed that I was laughing out loud. This would normally not be a good sign on so many levels.

But on this occasion my outburst of hilarity was to do with the latest expression of annoyance by Western nations over last week’s summit of Brics nations in the Russian city of Kazan.

The established Brics members — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, joined by a new cohort as of January of this year — Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, and the United Arab Emirates — obviously caused some fretting among the self-appointed masters of the universe led by the United States.

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