Eurasia News

  T he BRICS meeting on 6-7 July 2025 took place in a tense international context, marked by stagnating economic growth in the West, the prolonged conflict in Ukraine, tensions in the Middle East, and an industrial revival in Asia. The summit occurred as BRICS member states seek to strengthen their role in the global architecture, but it was also marked by the physical absence of two key leaders: Xi Jinping was absent for the first time since 2012[ 2 ], and Vladimir Putin participated only online[ 3 ]. Among the participants were Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva – President of Brazil (host and rotating BRICS president), Narendra Modi – Prime Minister of India, Cyril Ramaphosa – President of South Africa, Prabowo Subianto – President of Indonesia (admitted as a member on 6 January 2025), and Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan – President of the United Arab Emirates. This meeting is shaping up to be a turning point, with the potential to accelerate the process of de-dollarisation and the ...

A s I was writing a section of a book on sustainable development, I was struck by two key thoughts. In the first place, I was reminded of the growth in population, which had taken place over the last 60 or so years, from 3 billion approximately to over 8 billion. However, had we continued the previous trajectory of growth the population today would be approximately 5 billion. There are good reasons for this increase in growth of population; improved health, medical research breakthroughs, people living longer, expansion of globalised shipments of increased output of bulk food from better agricultural practises, and comparative peace, i.e. limited scope wars but no major conflagrations. An example of allowing continued long-term peace to reign, after a fairly uncomfortable period of erratic governance, is that of Indonesia. In the thirty-year period from 1970, the population doubled from 100 million to 200 million, and the average longevity increased from 40 to 70 years. This was as a ...