Good morning, India! 🌞 शुभ प्रभात, भारत!

📸 Can you guess location on the photo?

The correct answer will be posted in comment section later today!

🇷🇺🇮🇳 On August 23, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met with his Indian counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar during his visit to South Africa to attend the BRICS Summit.

The Ministers exchanged views on a wide range of bilateral and international issues, on cooperation in the #UN, #G20 and #BRICS. They discussed practical steps for further expanding trade and economic cooperation, as well as logistics and financial cooperation.

🤝 Sergey Lavrov congratulated his colleague on the successful landing of an Indian spacecraft on the Moon.

The Foreign Ministers agreed to remain in contact.

🔴 #LIVE: Joint news conference on the outcomes of the XV #BRICS Summit in South Africa

🔗 https://www.ruptly.tv/en/events/202308241000-LIVE15301-15th-BRICS-Summit-in-South-Africa-International-programme-day-3

🔗 https://mid.ru/en/press_service/video

🔴 #LIVE: President Vladimir Putin takes part online in the BRICS-Africa Outreach and BRICS Plus Dialogue meeting

🔗 https://www.ruptly.tv/en/events/202308240900-live15338-putin-takes-part-on-third-day-of-15th-brics-summit-in-south-africa

#BRICSSummit2023

🔴 #LIVE: Foreign Minister Sergey #Lavrov’s remarks and answers to media questions following the XV #BRICS Summit

🔗 https://www.ruptly.tv/en/events/202308231200-live15324-lavrov-talks-to-media-at-15th-brics-summit-in-south-africa

🔗 https://mid.ru/en/press_service/video

❗️ 🇷🇺 विदेश मंत्री बोले- स्वतंत्र व्यापार और भुगतान प्रणालियों पर ध्यान दें, पश्चिम ने साबित किया कि वह मुद्राओं और संस्थाओं का गलत इस्तेमाल करता है

जोहान्सबर्ग में ब्रिक्स शिखर सम्मेलन से इतर पत्रकारों से बात करते हुए सर्गेई लावरोव ने कहा, यहां बातचीत समूह के लिए संयुक्त मुद्रा स्थापित करने पर नहीं, बल्कि राष्ट्रीय मुद्राओं के माध्यम से व्यापार स्वतंत्रता पर अधिक केंद्रित थी। उन्होंने कहा:

📍ब्रिक्स का विस्तार मूल्य और योगदान के आधार पर समान विचारधारा वाले देशों को साथ लाने के लिए है
📍पश्चिम सक्रिय रूप से आधिपत्य बनाए रखने की कोशिश करता है, विचारों को दबाने के लिए तत्पर रहता है
📍हम ग्लोबल साउथ के प्रभाव को बढ़ावा देना चाहते हैं, ब्रिक्स सम्मेलन में देशों ने ऐसी क्षमता दिखाई
📍वैकल्पिक व्यापार प्रणाली के लिए आरक्षित मुद्राओं का पूल बनाया जा रहा है। उत्तर-दक्षिण कॉरिडोर से यूरेशियाई देशों की आर्थिक स्थिति में सुधार होगा

ब्रेकिंग न्यूज़ @RT_Hindi

🇧🇾 बेलारूस 1 से 6 सितंबर को CSTO 'कॉम्बैट ब्रदरहुड-2023' संयुक्त अभ्यास की मेजबानी करेगा - रक्षा मंत्रालय

सामूहिक सुरक्षा संधि संगठन (CSTO) यूरेशिया में एक अंतरसरकारी सैन्य गठबंधन है जिसमें छह पूर्व सोवियत राज्य शामिल हैं: आर्मेनिया, बेलारूस, कजाकिस्तान, किर्गिस्तान, रूस और ताजिकिस्तान।

@SputnikHindi को सब्सक्राइब करें।

❗️विस्तार के बाद कोई नाम नहीं बदला जाएगा: 🇷🇺रूसी विदेश मंत्री सर्गे लवरोव का कहना है कि दक्षिण अफ्रीका में शिखर सम्मेलन के सभी प्रतिभागी इस बात पर सहमत हैं कि नए सदस्यों के प्रवेश के बाद #BRICS समूह का नाम नहीं बदला जाना चाहिए।

@SputnikHindi को सब्सक्राइब करें।

🇷🇺 🌐"नए सदस्य देशों को शामिल करने के साथ, अब हम संगठन के भीतर 11 देशों को शामिल कर लिया है। हम एक एकजुट फुटबॉल टीम के तरह काम करेंगे। इसके अलावा, #BRICS कज़ान में आगामी शिखर सम्मेलन तक अपनी एकीकरण प्रक्रिया को सुविधाजनक बनाने में इन नए सदस्यों का समर्थन करने के लिए प्रतिबद्ध है," ब्रिक्स विस्तार पर सर्गे लवरोव ने कहा।

@SputnikHindi को सब्सक्राइब करें।

📸 🇿🇦 जोहान्सबर्ग में शिखर सम्मेलन के आखिरी दिन #BRICS नेता और भावी सदस्य सामूहिक फोटो के लिए एकत्र हुए।

@SputnikHindi को सब्सक्राइब करें।

📄 XV BRICS Summit Johannesburg II Declaration (Sandton, Gauteng, South Africa, August 23, 2023)

Read in full (Telegraph: part I, part II)

✍️ We, the Leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa met in Sandton, South Africa, from 22 to 24 August 2023 for the XV BRICS Summit held under the theme: "BRICS and Africa: Partnership for Mutually Accelerated Growth, Sustainable Development and Inclusive Multilateralism".

We reaffirm our commitment to the #BRICS spirit of mutual respect and understanding, sovereign equality, solidarity, democracy, openness, inclusiveness, strengthened collaboration and consensus. As we build upon 15 years of BRICS Summits, we further commit ourselves to strengthening the framework of mutually beneficial BRICS cooperation under the three pillars:

✅ political and security;
✅ economic and financial;
✅cultural and people-to-people cooperation;

and to enhancing our strategic partnership for the benefit of our people through the promotion of peace, a more representative, fairer international order, a reinvigorated and reformed multilateral system, sustainable development and inclusive growth.

Key points:

🇺🇳 We support a comprehensive reform of the UN, including its Security Council, with a view to making it more democratic, representative, effective and efficient, and to increase the representation of developing countries in the Council’s memberships.

• We are concerned about ongoing conflicts in many parts of the world. We stress our commitment to the peaceful resolution of differences and disputes through dialogue and inclusive consultations.

• We have decided to invite Argentina 🇦🇷, Egypt 🇪🇬, Ethiopia 🇪🇹, Iran 🇮🇷, Saudi Arabia 🇸🇦 and the UAE 🇦🇪 to become full members of BRICS from 1 January 2024.

🇧🇷🇮🇳🇨🇳🇿🇦 Brazil, India, China and South Africa extend their full support to Russia 🇷🇺 for its BRICS Chairship in 2024 and the holding of the XVI BRICS Summit in the city of Kazan, Russia.

📄 Russian MFA Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova's article for Komsomolskaya Pravda (August 25, 2023)

The living and the dead land

Key points:

💬 Back in their day, the Nazis came up with the idea of using depleted uranium as an armour-piercing weapon. <...> At the time, the danger of uranium as a weapon was not obvious, and all the data to this effect was viewed as controversial until the 1990s, when NATO troops employed depleted uranium munitions during their aggression against Yugoslavia in what turned out to be a horrific experiment.

• Russia warned people in Ukraine about this threat many times, but unfortunately it is about to materialise on the Ukrainian territory too. British and American supplies of radioactive and highly toxic depleted uranium munitions are turning Ukraine into a territory that is unsuitable for living. The radioactive contamination of soil is already underway.

📈 There was a substantial surge in radiation reported in Ukraine’s Khmelnitsky Region in May. A similar spike in radiation was also reported around the same time in Poland’s western regions. In both cases, the explosion of depleted uranium munitions at a storage facility in Khmelnitsky was probably what caused the spikes.

• Every warehouse with depleted uranium munitions and every tank carrying them can potentially lead to a surge in cancer rates, leaving behind deadly and toxic soils, and posing a mortal danger for all living being.

☝️ Ukrainians must understand that the UK supplies them with a true poison, since there will be no getting away from tumours, and demand that depleted uranium munitions be shipped out of the country as quickly as possible.

Read in full

🔴 #LIVE: Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov's news conference on the results of the XV BRICS Summit at the Rossiya Segodnya press centre.

🔗 https://mid.ru/en/press_service/video/

⚡️🇷🇺 President Putin Not Planning to Travel for G20 Summit in 🇮🇳 - Kremlin Spokesman

Dmitri Peskov told media on Friday that the Russian leader's focus is the Special Military Operation at present, though the country will be represented at the event.

Breaking @RT_India_official

Russian House in Trivandrum hosts Literary Festival to celebrate Leo Tolstoy's 195th birth anniversary

🇷🇺 📖 🇮🇳 Filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan inaugurates the month-long event, praising Tolstoy as a master of realistic fiction. T.P. Sreenivasan, former Indian ambassador, lauds Tolstoy's War and Peace and Anna Karenina as timeless classics, noting their influence on Mahatma Gandhi.

📹 Watch our video to learn more!

Subscribe to @sputniknewsindia

🎙 FM Sergey Lavrov’s remarks and answers to questions at the news conference following the BRICS Summit (Johannesburg, August 24, 2023)

💬 The BRICS Summit is over. President Vladimir Putin took part in the summit via videocall. I was instructed to represent our country here on site.

<...> Six countries [Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Argentina, Ethiopia, Iran, and Egypt] will be able to fully contribute to our efforts within BRICS effective January 1, 2024.

BRICS Plus is already underway. We have invited over 60 countries that are interested in developing relations with our association in the BRICS Plus/Outreach format and partner countries. This is a new format that was endorsed at the summit.

On explosive expansion of BRICS

💬 I believe that it stems from the fact that countries willing to forge closer ties with the five BRICS nations have a keen understanding of the deep-running international processes. They exposed the West in its relentless efforts to preserve its hegemony at any cost.

The difference between BRICS and the G7 or other West-centric associations is that in those associations, everybody looks up to the US. Our association takes a completely different approach: every participant is equal to the others.

On #RussiaSouthAfrica relations

Our relations are excellent. <...> All the leading politicians in the Republic of South Africa remember the role that the Soviet Union played in their fight against apartheid as well as in the decolonisation of Africa; we appreciate that. <...> There is no doubt that we have good prospects.

On situation in Niger

💬 We must see the true causes of these government coups. What did Africa get from working with the West? The African continent does not get any added value. All the West wants are its resources.

We have had a different approach ever since the Soviet era. We sought to lay the foundation for industrial development, promote education and healthcare.

Read in full

🗓 On August 22-24, 2023 the XV BRICS Summit was held in Johannesburg, South Africa. President Vladimir Putin took part in the Summit via videocall. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was instructed to represent Russia on site.

👉 On August 22, Vladimir Putin made a video address to guests and participants in the BRICS Business Forum as well as took part in an informal meeting of the leaders of the BRICS nations via videoconference.

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov took part in the BRICS Ministerial meeting.

👉 On August 23, President Vladimir Putin took part at the BRICS Summit expanded format meeting.

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov took part in the BRICS Summit as well as held bilateral meetings with:

• Minister of International Relations and Cooperation of South Africa Dr. Naledi Pandor and former President of South Africa (1999-2008) Thabo Mbeki 🇿🇦;
• Minister of External Affairs of India Dr. Subrahmanyam Jaishankar 🇮🇳;
• First Deputy Secretary-General of the African National Congress (ANC) Nomvula Paula Mokonyane, and representatives of the leadership of the South African Communist Party and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu).

👉 On August 24, President Vladimir Putin took part, via videoconference, in the BRICS Plus/Outreach format meeting as well as made statement for the media.

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov also took part in the first session of the «BRICS – Africa Outreach» and «BRICS Plus Dialogue»

On the sidelines of the Summit Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met with President of Bolivia Luis Arce Catacora, President of the Central African Republic Faustin-Archange Touadérav, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

Following the BRICS Summit Foreign Minister Sergey held a news conference.

📃 The Second Johannesburg Declaration has been adopted following the XV BRICS Summit.