BRICS News

The theme is “BRICS in Africa: Collaboration for Inclusive Growth and Shared Prosperity in the Fourth Industrial Revolution”

The Russian and US delegations led by Putin and Trump met for a working lunch in Helsinki, Finland on July 16, 2018 [PPIO]
 
Russian President Vladimir Putin has hailed his summit with US President Donald Trump as a first step to clearing tensions between their two countries and denied any role in the 2016 presidential election.
“Of course, numerous problems persist, and we have failed to clear the backlog in full, it was impossible to do this, but I believe we have made the first important step in that direction,” he told reporters.

Putin and Trump met at the 25th APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting in Vietnam in November 2017 [PPIO]
 
Russian president Vladimir Putin met his US counterpart Donald Trump with a slight advantage in Helsinki, Finland on Monday.
That would be a World Cup advantage.
Putin was in attendance at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow where in a dramatic finale to what many agree has been the most successful World Cup in years, France defeated Croatia 4 to 2.
In their opening sit-down in front of the press in Helsinki, Trump reiterated his tweet from the previous evening:

The Russians can be proud of hosting one of the most crucial World Cup tournaments in recent memory.
The official World Cup Russia 2018 ball handed over to Qatar
 
This one is for the record books having seen a number of firsts – title holders Germany ousted from the first round for the first time in 80 years; the introduction of the Video Assistant Referee (VAR), through which many penalties were awarded – including in the France-Croatia final; the first own goal in a final game; the fewest red cards since 1970 … the list goes on.

Chinese President Xi Jinping will be taking a large trade delegation with him when he visits the UAE, ahead of his visit to South Africa for the 10th BRICS Summit [Archive]
For the first time in 29 years, a Chinese head of state will be visiting the United Arab Emirates to discuss bilateral ties and look at ways to expand the One Belt One Road culture and trade initiative to the Arab countries of the Persian Gulf, an official in Beijing said.

Syria will dominate the summit between Putin and Trump, Russian aides have said [PPIO]
US President Donald Trump said that a relationship with Russia would benefit the entire world, but warned that he had low expectations going into his summit meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin next week.
During his joint press conference with UK Prime Minister Theresa May at Buckinghamshire, Trump was repeatedly pressed to comment how he would meet with Putin while Russia “continued to occupy Crimea”.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the President of Iran, Hassan Rouhani, in Jomhouri Building, at Saadabad Palace, in Tehran on May 23, 2016 [Image: PMO, India]
 
Despite the threat of further sanctions on Iran, its oil industry is continuing to do brisk trade with a number of countries, including the BRICS.
According to Iranian oil industry sources in Tehran, overall bilateral trade with BRICS countries reached 53.78 million tons.
While this is a decline of just over 8 per cent year on year, its value is up 7.4 per cent due to higher oil prices.

Premier Li Keqiang said that China is committed to market reforms and opening up to the global economy [PPIO]
 
A report released by the Bank of China on Sunday indicated that the Chinese economy is forecast to have grown by 6.7 per cent in the first half of 2018.
This is a slight dip from the 6.8 per cent growth in the first quarter of 2018. It grew at a similar pace in Q3 and Q4 of 2017.
The report says that the property market nationally has continued to improve and that the economy overall is resilient.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is due to meet US President Donald Trump in Helsinki, Finland on July 16 but most of the talks will focus on the Syrian conflict [PPIO]
 
A week after resorting to the World Trade Organization in its complaint against US tariffs on Russian steel and aluminum, Moscow has raised its duties from 25 to 40 per cent on some US imports.
According to the Russian news agency TASS, Economic Development Minister Maksim Oreshkin said the rise was to compensate for more than $500 million loss in exports expected due to the US tariffs.

Chinese President Xi Jinping maintains a good relationship with Trump, but Chinese media has called the US a trade bully
 
US President Donald Trump has warned of imposing tariffs on as much as $500 billion in Chinese exports if Beijing retaliates against his administration’s $34 billion levies which went into effect July 6.