BRICS Business Forum

President of Russia Vladimir Putin addressed a meeting of the BRICS Business Forum.

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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Friends, Prime Minister Modi, colleagues - heads of state, our friends in the audience, and members of our countries' business community.

As per tradition, this event takes place before the BRICS Summit. Its high-profile attendance underscores growing interest in strengthening contacts throughout the territory of our association.

It is clear that strong economic partnerships and reliable business ties largely shape the basis of international relations, reinforcing their stability and helping us overcome the crisis elements the modern world is facing. The world has entered a period of deep structural shifts caused by the fact that the old leaders - relatively speaking old - who were at the forefront of economic growth in the latter half of the past century, are being replaced with new growth drivers.

Of course, when I say "old," it is just a figure of speech, but all of us understand what we are talking about. These so-called old leaders still have big and powerful advantages, a developed infrastructure, technological advantages, scientific schools, and so on.

Nevertheless, change invariably happens in the world, in human society and in the economy. The world is changing. This is borne out by objective statistics. Over the past five years, as it has already been said today - I think it was our Indonesian colleague who said it, the BRICS countries accounted for over 40 percent of global GDP, while the contribution of the Group of Seven, the so-called leading economies, although I don't understand why they are called "leading," was just 29 percent.

To be continued.