MOSCOW, September 8. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin took part in the extraordinary virtual BRICS summit from his Sochi residence.

The press was not given access to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s speech at the summit, as the meeting was held behind closed doors.

TASS has collected key facts about the summit.

Format and topic

The summit lasted for 90 minutes.

This was an extraordinary summit.

The BRICS summit was held online at Brazil’s initiative.

The summit’s topic was threats to the multipolar world order and the association’s consolidated response to the United States’ tariffs and sanctions.

Putin’s participation

Putin joined the online BRICS summit from his Sochi residence.

"The summit’s participants discussed issues of cooperation between the BRICS member states in the trade-and-economic, financial, investment, and other areas in the context of the current situation in the global economy," the Kremlin said.

Statements

According to the Brazilian president’s press office, the association "reaffirmed its commitment to preserving and strengthening multilateralism, as well as reforming international institutions."

South Africa sees BRICS as a leader of the global economy and a reformer of the system of international relations, the republic’s president Cyril Ramaphosa said and called on the BRICS nations to consolidate the association’s leadership in the global economy.

Closer interaction between BRICS member states will help better cope with external challenges and risks, Chinese President Xi Jinping said and called on member countries to remain committed to multilateralism to defend international justice and law.

BRICS can give an example of how to encourage sustainable trade if it analyzes and resolves the problem of trade disbalance in relations between member states, Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said.