Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke at the BRICS summit underway in New Delhi. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Sputnik Kazakhstan.

He noted that BRICS is effectively the largest association in the world. The countries belonging to the organisation occupy one third of the Earth's territory, produce 40% of global gross domestic product, and nearly half of the world's population lives in these states.

According to the Russian leader, BRICS has rightfully established itself as one of the main centres of global governance. Putin said the world is now undergoing fundamental changes in geopolitical, geoeconomic, technological and social terms.

"Much is changing. First of all, people's way of life, the level of medicine, and the quality of the environment are changing. The structure of society and the demographic map of the world are also being transformed," Putin said.

The unipolar system of international relations is becoming a thing of the past. The balance of power is being redistributed in favour of new growth centres in the Global South and East.

According to Putin, an increasing number of states are openly declaring their readiness to defend their national interests and to participate in solving global problems. However, the formation of a multipolar world is not proceeding easily.

"These changes are mainly being resisted by those who are used to thinking with a colonial mindset. They seek to divide the world into a flourishing garden and wild jungle, and to live at the expense of others," the Russian president said.

According to him, they are not ready to accept the changing reality. Therefore, they try to hold back the development of competitors through tariff wars, illegal sanctions and interference in the internal affairs of other states.

In the context of the emerging multipolar world order, it is more important than ever to work together to strengthen genuine multilateralism and to draw as many countries as possible into global governance mechanisms, he stressed.

Russia attaches particular importance to preserving and strengthening the central role of the UN in world affairs. At the same time, it considers it necessary to improve the effectiveness of the organisation's work. According to Putin, this goal would be promoted by expanding the composition of the UN Security Council to include countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America.

The Russian leader believes that BRICS has great potential to further develop mutually beneficial cooperation, enhance the effectiveness of the global governance system and ensure genuine multipolarity and justice in world affairs.

"New dynamic sectors have emerged, such as the platform economy, financial technologies and digital trade. All of them require separate institutions and special regulatory rules," Putin said. According to him, BRICS can play one of the leading roles in shaping such institutions and rules.

Following the summit, the participating countries adopted a joint declaration. According to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the document clearly outlines the main directions of future work. Now the responsibility for turning these tasks into concrete results rests with the leaders of the association.

BRICS was founded in 2006 by Russia, China, India and Brazil. In 2011, the Republic of South Africa joined it, and since the beginning of 2024, several more states have joined the organisation. In 2026, India holds the BRICS chairmanship.

The 18th BRICS summit is being held on 12-13 September at the Bharat Mandapam complex in New Delhi.