Díaz-Canel arrives in Brazil to attend BRICS Summit

Rio de Janeiro, July 6.- Early Sunday, First Secretary of the Party Central Committee and President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, arrived in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, leading the official Cuban delegation that is attending the Seventeenth BRICS Summit on July 6th and 7th, an integration mechanism with a significant impact on global geopolitics.

Along with the president, our country’s official delegation includes the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla; the Head of the International Relations Department of the Party Central Committee, Emilio Lozada García; and other officials from the Foreign Ministry and the government.

This is the second time the President has attended a BRICS summit.  The first took place in Johannesburg in 2023, as President Pro Tempore of the Group of 77 and China.  This time, he will do so at the highest level, due to Cuba’s status as a partner country of the group, approved during the meeting held in the Russian city of Kazan. This recognition of our small nation’s participation and contributions in debates on the international agenda and in defense of multilateralism.

The BRICS is made up of 21 countries, eleven of them full members and the rest as partners, with the aim of achieving greater impact in the international debate in the fight against the hegemony attempted by the United States and in defense of the Global South.

At the Rio de Janeiro meeting, Díaz-Canel will participate in two panels. The presence of the Head of State at the Summit provides an opportunity to meet with the heads of the various delegations of the member and partner countries, as well as attending international organizations, and to exchange views on issues of bilateral interest and the international agenda.

The BRICS forum is also a time to denounce the blockade and the Trump administration’s aggressive policy toward Cuba.

As is customary during his trips abroad, Díaz-Canel also plans to hold meetings with Cuba solidarity groups and Brazilian intellectuals.

The BRICS represent 48.5 percent of the global population, 39 percent of the GDP, 24 percent of total foreign trade, 43.6 percent of oil production and reserves, and 78.2 percent of coal. They also excel in the creation of alternative technologies, the use of new technologies, and the digital transition.

The group emerged in 2008 with the consensus of the founding nations of Brazil, Russia, India, and China, and later South Africa.

The Rio de Janeiro meeting will take place at a very complex time.  In recent statements to the press from the Presidency, Carlos Pereira, Director General of Bilateral Affairs at the Foreign Ministry, commented that “the first major expectation the summit will have to overcome is the context in which it is taking place: one of belligerence and the crisis of multilateralism, with recent events in the Middle East, with the United States attempting to impose its hegemony.” (Take from Radio Habana Cuba)