Johannesburg,South Africa

The 15th BRICS Summit is underway in Sandton Convention Centre,Johannesburg in South Africa and is expected to run for three days from 22 to 24 August 2023.

The summit will be attended by China's President Xi Jinping,Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi,President of Brazil Luiz Lula da Silva and Russian President will be unavailable to attend in person.

The Russian Federation will be represented by its Foreign Minister,Sergei Lavrov after Vladimir Putin is wanted by International Criminal Court(ICC) for his involvement on abduction of Ukraine children.

But Putin is expected to attend the meeting virtually and will be something to happen since the BRICS bloc was formed in 2009.

BRICS leaders are expected to address the issue of expanding the bloc which might be a good push to counterweight the West which is seems to be intimidated by the existence of this bloc.

On Tuesday morning,President of South Africa,Cyril Ramaphosa hosted the Chinese leader in the Union Buildings,Pretoria before heading to Johannesburg in a summit and it obvious that these leaders have talked about the expansion of BRICS.

China is the bloc's biggest member with a Gross Domestic Product(GDP) of more than US$18 trillion and it is in position two behind United States.

Russia's economy has been affected so severely lately due to a strings of sanctions imposed on it by the United States,United Kingdom and other Western countries for its invasion of Ukraine in February last year.

South Africa is hosting this summit is also battling with shortage of electricity which has impacted the country's economy negatively and its leader Cyril Ramaphosa is hoping that his country would pass this difficult time sooner than later.

BRICS countries account more than 40% of the world population and a quarter of the global economy.

According South Africa as the chair of this year summit,more than 40 countries are showing interest to join bloc,including countries such as Iran,Saudi Arabia,United Arab Emirates,Argentina,Algeria,Bolivia,Indonesia,Egypt,Ethiopia,Cuba,Democratic Republic of Congo,Comoros,Gabon and Kazakhstan.