Page 39 - RusRPTJul23

2.16 Politics - misc
● International Politics
Nearly 20 countries are seeking to get BRICS membership and their number continues to grow, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said.
"I can say that, in our view, the Arab world and the Asia-Pacific region have been clearly `begging’ to join BRICS, as they have no representation there today. But we will see exactly what we can offer to the leaders regarding this, and leave this to the leaders to decide at the summit in Johannesburg," he concluded.
Moscow expects that Pretoria will guarantee jurisdictional immunity to Russian President Vladimir Putin during the BRICS summit scheduled for Johannesburg in August, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told TASS.
"We believe that the infamous arrest warrant [against the Russian president] issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) is legally null and void; it was a provocative and completely unacceptable move," the senior diplomat pointed out.
Nato members are still only spending collectively 1.8% of their GDP on military. NATO member states agreed at the summit in 2014 to spend, or to move towards spending, 2% of GDP on defence. In 2023, only 11 of 30 countries will reach that goal. Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the largest increases in defence spending occurred on NATO’s Eastern flank. Overall defence spending of NATO plus candidate Sweden will top 1.2 trillion euros, or 2.6% of total GDP. However, the high percentage is due to US spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of the total. Without the United States, the combined defence spending of the remaining members would only reach 1.8% of GDP. The shortfall to the 2% target amounts to more than 50bn euros. The largest shortfalls in 2023 will be posted (in euros) by Germany (17bn), Canada (14bn), Spain (12bn) and Italy (10bn). The largest surpluses will occur (in euros) in the USA (330bn), Poland (17bn) and the UK (7bn).
Zelensky says 'no point' in attending NATO summit if Ukraine not 'given a signal.' "If we are not acknowledged and given a signal in Vilnius, I believe there is no point for Ukraine to be at this summit," President Volodymyr Zelensky told the Wall Street Journal.
Kremlin bans Western journalists from the Russian Economic Forum
39 RUSSIA Country Report July 2023 www.intellinews.com