15th BRICS summit

The 2023 BRICS summit was the fifteenth annual BRICS summit, an international relations conference attended by the heads of state or heads of government of the five member states: Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.^[2][3] South African President Cyril Ramaphosa also invited the leaders of 67 countries to the summit.^[4]

2023 BRICS summit 15th BRICS summit
← 14th 22–24 August 2023 16th →
Host country	South Africa
Cities	Johannesburg
Venues	Sandton Convention Centre
Participants	Brazil  Russia  India  China  South Africa Invited bodies: African Union Arab Maghreb Union Organisation of Islamic Cooperation United Nations ASEAN[1]
Chair	Cyril Ramaphosa, President of South Africa
Website	www.brics2023.gov.za

Summit events

BRICS expansion

Several countries have expressed interest in joining the BRICS group.^[5] At the summit, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates have been invited to join the bloc. Full membership took effect on 1 January 2024.^[6][7]

Participating leaders

See also: List of BRICS summit attendees

• 
   Brazil
  Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, President
• 
   Russia
  Sergei Lavrov, Foreign Minister^[8][9]
• 
   Russia
  Vladimir Putin, President (participating virtually)
• 
   India
  Narendra Modi, Prime Minister
• 
   China
  Xi Jinping, CCP General Secretary and President^[a]
• 
   South Africa
  Cyril Ramaphosa, President (Host)

Other attendees

Country	Position	Officeholder	Source
Algeria	Finance Minister	Laaziz Fayed	[10]
Angola	State Minister of Economic Coordenation	José de Lima Massano	[11]
Bangladesh	Prime Minister	Sheikh Hasina	[12]
Belarus	Foreign Minister	Sergei Aleinik	[13]
Bolivia	President	Luis Arce	[14]
Botswana	Vice President	Slumber Tsogwane	[15]
Burundi	President	Evariste Ndayishimiye	[16]
Cameroon	Prime Minister	Joseph Ngute	[17]
Central African Republic	President	Faustin-Archange Touadera	[18]
China	Commerce Minister	Wang Wentao	[19]
Congo	President	Denis Sassou Nguesso	[20]
Cuba	First Secretary President	Miguel Díaz-Canel	[21]
DR Congo	Prime Minister	Jean-Michel Sama Lukonde	[22]
Egypt	Prime Minister	Mostafa Madbouly	[23]
Ethiopia	Prime Minister	Abiy Ahmed	[24]
Equatorial Guinea	President	Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo	[25]
Eritrea	President	Isaias Afwerki	[26]
Ghana	President	Nana Akufo-Addo	[27]
Indonesia	President	Joko Widodo	[28]
Iran	President	Ebrahim Raisi	[29]
Libya	Vice President	Musa Al-Koni	[30]
Malawi	President	Lazarus Chakwera	[17]
Mozambique	President	Filipe Nyusi	[31]
Namibia	President	Hage Geingob	[32]
Nigeria	Vice President	Kashim Shettima	[33]
Palestine	Deputy Prime Minister	Ziad Abu Amr	[34]
Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic	President	Brahim Ghali	[35]
São Tomé and Príncipe	President	Carlos Vila Nova	[11]
Saudi Arabia	Foreign Minister	Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud	[13]
Senegal	President	Macky Sall	[11]
South Sudan	President	Salva Kiir Mayardit	[36]
Tanzania	President	Samia Suluhu Hassan	[37]
Uganda	Vice President	Jessica Alupo	[38]
United Arab Emirates	President	Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan	[17]
Zambia	President	Hakainde Hichilema	[39]
Zimbabwe	Vice President	Constantino Chiwenga	[40]

Controversies

Participation of Vladimir Putin

Main article: International Criminal Court arrest warrants for Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova

The BRICS leaders and Sergei Lavrov

In March 2023, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin for war crimes during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.^[41] South Africa is required as an ICC signatory to honour the warrant.^[2]

In May 2023, the South African government, led by the African National Congress (ANC),^[42] granted all invited leaders diplomatic immunity. It remained unclear at the time whether this would prevent Putin from being arrested if he attended. According to the Department of International Relations and Cooperation, it was standard practice in South Africa to confer such immunity to attendees of international conferences held in the country.^[3]

By early June 2023, moving the summit to China was being considered to avoid the issue.^[43] In mid-July 2023, Vladimir Putin announced that he would not attend the summit "by mutual agreement" and would instead be sending Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.^[44]

Narendra Modi's refusal to disembark plane

Ethiopian Prime Minister Ahmed with Indian counterpart Prime Minister Narendra Modi meeting for Ethiopia's admission to the alliance

On 22 August 2023, Daily Maverick reported that India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi refused to get off his plane until the deputy president of South Africa was dispatched to welcome him^[45][46][47] instead of the government cabinet minister that was present to conduct the airport welcome.^[47] The South African government denied that Modi had refused to disembark his plane, saying that Ramaphosa was unable to meet Modi at the airport due to scheduling difficulties, and adding that it was common for government ministers to welcome visiting heads of state.^[48]

Following the publication of the story, the Daily Maverick experienced a sustained DDOS attack from India,^[46][49] which forced it to temporarily block access to the site from the country.^[50] The editor-in-chief of the Daily Maverick speculated that the reason for the DDOS attack was to prevent people in India from reading the article.^[49]

Nonattendance by Xi Jinping

Despite meeting with host Cyril Ramaphosa earlier in the day and attending the BRICS dinner afterward, Chinese leader Xi Jinping unexpectedly did not attend the BRICS business forum where he had been scheduled to speak and instead his speech was read out by Minister of Commerce of China Wang Wentao.^[51][19]

Notes

1. The head of government of China is the Premier, while the President is legally a ceremonial office and has no real power in China's political system. However, the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (top position) has always held this office since 1993 except for the months of transition, and the current paramount leader is Xi Jinping.