THE Russian and Chinese foreign ministers were set to meet their counterparts from the Brics economic bloc of developing nations in South Africa today.

The will start with “an exchange of views” on major geopolitical issues, including the war in Ukraine, South Africa’s ambassador to the bloc said.

Most of the Brics countries differ sharply from the position of the United States and its Western allies over the war. 

Speaking ahead of the meeting, South African ambassador Anil Sooklal said: “We do not know of any global conflict that has been solved through war.”

He said: “All it does is cause more pain and suffering and, as Brics countries, we are saying: ‘Let’s focus on finding a peaceful resolution to the challenges, rather than fuelling the conflict’.”

The Brics bloc of emerging economies comprises of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. 

Thursday’s meeting of foreign ministers is a precursor to a larger Brics summit in Johannesburg in August.

The expansion of the Brics bloc is also a key topic for discussion, both at the meeting of the foreign ministers and the main Brics summit in August.

Mr Sooklal said that more than 20 countries had “formally or informally” requested to join the Brics bloc, among them Saudi Arabia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates, which had submitted official requests.

Foreign ministers from at least 15 other countries from the global South have also been invited to a second Brics meeting in Cape Town on Friday, as Mr Sooklal said one of the bloc’s stated aims was to address “the major fault lines in the geopolitical front and the economic front” that had been partly caused by an outdated international system.

The Brics bloc is proposing to establish a new reserve currency for trade between nations in a move that would undermine the global power of the US dollar.