Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that the world is undergoing deep structural and profound changes and has moved beyond G-7, as he lauded the BRICS countries for being ready for every challenge. Putin, who arrived in India in wee hours of Friday, made the remarks while speaking at the BRICS Business Forum at the Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi.
In his remarks, Putin said over 40 per cent of the world's total gross domestic produce (GDP) was produced by BRICS countries in the last five years. He said the BRICS countries comprise over half of the world's total population because of which they now have "a great dynamic, vibrant, domestic markets".
"Right now, the world is undergoing structural, deep, profound shifts. It is explained by the fact that the so-called old leaders which used to be the vanguard of economic growth in the second half of the 20th century, are being replaced by new engines of growth," he said.
"When I say old, this is just a formality - all of us understand what we are talking about. These so-called old leaders are still in possession of great strong suits and well-developed infrastructure, technological advantages, scientific advantages, scientific schools and so on and so forth. That's sad, this isn't the nature of things. This isn't the nature of humanity and the nature of economy," he added.
Putin calls out West over sanctions
Putin also called out the West for imposing sanctions on Russia, but despite this, he said the Russian economy has been superior to the world average in the past three years. He said over 30,000 sanctions have been imposed on Russia, which is twice as much as the number of all sanctions against all other countries of the world combined.
"Against this difficult backdrop, Russia has been working actively and Russia has managed to achieve great success. We have reinforced our national sovereignty, we are developing ties with reliable, predictable partners," he said.
Putin's meet with Modi
Earlier in the day, Putin held a high-level bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with the two leaders holding talks to increase the defence and energy ties, and boost the trade cooperation between them. India and Russia are focusing to increase their annual bilateral trade to USD 100 billion by 2030.
Apart from their discussions on boosting defence and trade ties, PM Modi also gifted Putin a copy of the Russian translation of Thirukkural -- the classical Tamil poem collection authored by legendary poet and philosopher Thiruvalluvar.
This was the second meeting between Putin and PM Modi in around a week. Last week, they had met in Kyrgyzstan's capital Bishkek on sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO). Back then, PM Modi had called for a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, and said the two sides must resolve their difference via dialogue and diplomacy.
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