Emmanuel Macron wants to take his one-man global diplomacy to another level.
The French president wishes to become the first Western leader to be invited to a BRICS summit, Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said late Monday.
“Having a dialogue is always positive, even when we don’t 100 percent agree on everything,” Colonna said at a press conference in Pretoria, where she had just met with her South African counterpart, Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor, according to French public broadcaster RFI.
“We’re thinking out loud — but it’s obviously a decision that only the relevant countries can take — about the possibility of continuing this dialogue, why not at the BRICS summit or in another format,” the French minister said.
South Africa will host the next summit of BRICS countries — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, all of which remain close to Moscow despite the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine — in Johannesburg on August 22-24.
The BRICS group of large emerging economies is the Global South’s answer to the G7 group of Western industrialized countries.
The five countries’ leaders usually take part in these summits. If he is given an invite, Macron — whose personal involvement in French foreign policy has reached new heights since the start of Russia’s war in Ukraine — would be the first Western leader to attend.
Speaking at the same press conference Monday, the South African minister said an invitation was not off the table, but that the final decision lies with President Cyril Ramaphosa, as the next meeting’s chair.
“If that were to happen, this would be an innovation within the current BRICS participation model, but it could amplify the BRICS forum’s global reach,” Pandor said.
The topic could be discussed by Ramaphosa and Macron later this week, as the two leaders will both be in Paris for the Summit for a New Global Financial Pact.
