China hosted the 14th BRICS summit via video link on June 24th, 2022, and Pakistan was not invited. According to the sources Pakistan’s participation was blocked by one member of the BRICS.
Read on Pakistan’s Day: Why Do We Celebrate Pakistan Day?
On Monday (27th July 2022) Foreign office Spokesperson Asim Iftikhar confirmed that Pakistan’s participation in the 14th BRICS summit was blocked by one member. Without mentioning the name of the country that blocked Pakistan’s invitation although sources claimed Pakistan’s participation was blocked by India (one of the top members).
Members of the BRICS Countries
BRICS is a group of emerging countries including Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa established in 2009 with a vision to improve the relationship between the member countries which in total consists of 41% of the World’s population and 24% of the World’s GDP.
The acronym BRIC (Brazil, Russia India, and China) was first coined by Goldman Sack in 2001 in one of their Global Economy paper.
Importance of Brics for Pakistan
The Brics summit was very crucial for Pakistan’s foreign policy, especially at the current times when the country is facing the worst inflation after its independence but unfortunately because of the one member of BRICS. Pakistan didn’t attend the summit.
This summit was very important for Pakistan as the country’s FO (Foreign Office) trying to improve its relations with other countries in order to increase its & international trade & foreign reserves which are currently at a record low from 27067.70 USD Million in 2021 to 16406 USD Million in April 2022.
Pakistan’s foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto also describes the current situation of Pakistan as “internationally isolated and disengaged” on June 16th, 2022, and made a commitment to improving its current foreign relations. Mr. Bhutto-zardari also expresses Pakistan’s interest in improving its relationship with India by saying:
“Our relations with our neighboring countries especially India are not moving forward which is not good for both countries”
BRICS Summit was attended by more than 12 countries & world leaders who discussed briefly the subjects of poverty reduction, pandemic management & supply of vaccines, combating climate changes, Green development projects, and global industrialization.
China’s Response to not including Pakistan
Pakistan congratulated China for hosting the 14th Brics summit and said China did engage with Pakistan prior to the summit but during the Brics members meeting for inviting the non-members to the summit one of the member countries blocked Pakistan’s invitation.
