With calls for economic stability, environmental action and cultural unity, the Kazan Declaration emerges as a manifesto for South-South collaboration
A few days after India’s External Affairs Minister’s historic visit to Islamabad for the 23rd meeting of the SCO Council of Heads of Government, the most significant annual event of the Global South unfolded in Kazan, Russia: the BRICS summit. Kazan, conquered by Ivan the Terrible in 1552, marks the end of the Kazan Khanate and the beginning of Russian expansion eastward.
As the local Tatar proverb warns, “If the heavens give, they also take away,” it serves as a sobering reminder of the precarious balance between fortune and misfortune, urging humility and preparedness for inevitable change. This week’s summit signifies a pivotal moment for the Global South, challenging Western dominance while exposing its mockery of international humanitarian laws and the chaos it fuels in West Asia, particularly in Palestine and Lebanon, threatening to plunge the entire world into unprecedented conflict and despair.