Assertion by President Cyril Ramaphosa to the Extraordinary BRICS Leaders’ Assembly, 8 September 2025

Your Excellency, President Lula da Silva,
Fellow BRICS Leaders,
Honourable Ministers,
Excellencies,
Ladies and gents,

Let me begin by thanking President Lula da Silva for convening this extraordinary assembly to debate present international geopolitical and financial points that have an effect on the state of the world and its multilateral system.

We are witnessing seismic shifts in international commerce that current each challenges and alternatives within the re-ordering of the worldwide economic system.

There is a shift from a unipolar to a multipolar world.

This second is marked by intensifying international competitors and rising geopolitical tensions.

Unilateral tariff actions are contributing to an more and more protectionist atmosphere which poses nice hardships and hazard for the international locations of the Global South.

The uncertainty of the brand new buying and selling regime has already negatively affected employment ranges in my very own nation South Africa and is an impediment to our financial progress.

We are subsequently supportive of significant BRICS initiatives that enhance the resilience of our economies as BRICS international locations and people of the Global South and likewise strengthen the worldwide multilateral system.

Our focus is on strengthening and collaboratively diversifying our commerce and funding partnerships with Africa, Asia, the Gulf, the Americas and Europe.

South Africa’s response is rooted within the promise of an African continent on the rise, a continent that’s wealthy in expertise, innovation, in sources and untapped potential.

Our imaginative and prescient is of Africa that’s the beating coronary heart of world commerce participating the world not as a mere exporter of uncooked supplies, however as a creator of worth, a connector of areas and a catalyst for shared prosperity.

We are working with our fellow African international locations to consolidate the African Continental Free Trade Area.

South Africa stays agency that the multilateral buying and selling system with the WTO and the United Nations at their core have to be preserved till all member states are in a position to attain their developmental objectives.

Over the previous 30 years, the WTO has labored to make sure a degree taking part in discipline in international commerce that’s free, predictable and ruled by a rules-based system.

However, imbalances persist.

Developing economies stay locked into the decrease finish of world worth chains.

South Africa subsequently reaffirms its help for the reform initiative being spearheaded on the WTO. BRICS international locations should champion the reforms which can be happening on the WTO.

We should redouble our efforts to make sure that commerce helps improvement.

Global commerce should work for all of us.

Eighty years in the past, the United Nations was established to construct a peaceable, affluent and people-centred world arising from the devastation caused by international battle.

We all pledged to uphold the pillars of peace, improvement and human rights underpinned by worldwide regulation.

Today, nonetheless, a rise in armed conflicts internationally, fractious geopolitical tensions, environmental disaster, the proliferation of commerce wars and continued underdevelopment all threaten the safety and financial well-being of humanity.

This underscores the significance of constant to strengthen the work of your entire United Nations system and the total implementation of membership-led mandates.

This is the place BRICS international locations ought to play a vital position in strengthening the multilateral system.

The challenges humanity faces right this moment underscores the urgency of reform of the United Nations to make sure that it’s inclusive, consultant and match for function.

BRICS international locations have been on the forefront of reforming multilateral establishments.

The progress and financial dynamism of rising economies is being undermined by disruption and chaos.

New shocks to international commerce patterns, worldwide financing and significant minerals flows, together with the intensification of issues created by sovereign debt overhang and imbalanced tax regimes, are creating uncertainties for policymakers, customers and firms.

As a part of its G20 Presidency, South Africa has launched an Extraordinary Committee of Independent Experts on Global Wealth Inequality chaired by Nobel Laureate Professor Joseph Stiglitz.

The committee will ship the first-ever report on international inequality to G20 Leaders since its inception.

The specialists will report on the state of wealth and revenue inequality, its influence on progress, poverty and multilateralism, and current a menu of efficient options for leaders.

As BRICS, we have to mirror on our position in shaping international progress, addressing international poverty and championing multilateralism.

We ought to use our rising voice to advance a worldwide order that improves the lives of all of the world’s individuals and safeguards the planet for future generations.

Let us form a brand new paradigm of multilateral cooperation anchored in fairness, sustainability and improvement, but in addition anchored in peace.

That is why South Africa helps the decision by Brazil for a ceasefire in Gaza, a two-state answer and self-determination for the Palestinian individuals.

We should use our establishments to drive improvement throughout Africa and the Global South.

We should additionally use our collective voice to advance reforms to modernise multilateral improvement financial institution mandates and to higher mirror the voices and priorities of creating economies.

We must unlock scaled-up finance for the wants of the Global South and catalyse investments in early warning techniques, resilient infrastructure, community-led adaptation and people-centred simply transition pathways.

In current months, we’ve been in firefighting mode as we take care of disruption and chaos.

We must pivot from disaster administration to strategic motion, from emergency fixes to collective progress and improvement.

I strongly imagine that when BRICS international locations unite in solidarity to co-create options, we unlock tangible mutual advantages for BRICS members and the broader Global South.

For South Africa, a BRICS Economic Partnership Strategy that comprises a significant approach ahead on addressing the imbalanced construction of BRICS commerce would ship a transparent message to the world that each one BRICS members are dedicated to mutually useful commerce that addresses the wants and pursuits of all its members.

This international buying and selling disaster offers a terrific alternative for us to do issues in a different way.

A dedication on the a part of all of us to sustainably deal with our varied non-tariff obstacles would place BRICS as a steady and predictable mutually useful buying and selling associate amidst the present international disruptions.

Let us conclude the BRICS Economic Partnership Strategy 2030 and concentrate on its implementation.

Let us show how consensus is constructed by way of negotiation and never by way of coercion.

Compromise and trade-offs are the inspiration of mutually useful outcomes that tangibly enhance the lives of our residents.

Let us undertake all these necessary actions collectively, in a spirit of partnership and solidarity.

I thanks.

Issued by: The Presidency
Pretoria

www.thepresidency.gov.za