The leaders of two key Commonwealth countries have cemented relations with Russia by attending an international summit hosted by Vladimir Putin.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and South African President Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa will attend the BRICS summit of emerging economies in Kazan, southwest Russia, from Tuesday until Thursday.
Two other Commonwealth countries – Malaysia and Sri Lanka – also sent ministers to the talks, seen by Putin as a rival to the G7 Summit and a counter to the Western world.
Rafizi Ramli, Malaysia’s Minister of the Economy and Aruni Wijewardane, of the Sri Lanka Ministry of Foreign Affairs, both attended.
It came as King Charles and Queen Camilla landed in Samoa after spending five days in Australia.
King Charles will chair a Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting on Friday and Saturday, which UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer will also attend.
It is unclear whether the Indian and South African leaders will make the Commonwealth talks after attending BRICS.
In its sixteenth year, BRICS was named after the five founding countries, Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, but new countries joined.
It has been expanded to include Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia has also been invited to join.
The West has tried to make a pariah of Putin for invading Ukraine, with a host of sanctions aiming to cut off the Russian economy from global markets.
There is also an arrest warrant out for him for alleged war crimes from the International Criminal Court.
Yet Putin has used the BRICS summit, which is taking place from Tuesday to Thursday this week, as a show of defiance to show that he is still on the international stage and backed by many countries.
Russia claimed representatives from as many as 36 countries attended the event, including about 20 heads of state of emerging economies.
Other attendees included China’s President Xi Jinping, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and representatives of Turkey.
The BRICS nations cover 45 percent of the global population, and their combined economies are worth more than $28.5tn (£22tn) – about 28 percent of the global total.
Chris Weafer, founding partner of consultancy firm Macro-Advisory, told the BBC: “The clear message is that attempts to isolate Russia have failed.
“It’s a big part of the messaging from the Kremlin that Russia is withstanding sanctions. We know there are severe cracks beneath the surface. But at a geopolitical level, Russia has all these friends, and they’re all going to be Russia‘s partners.
“A lot of the problems Russia‘s economy is facing are linked to cross-border trade and payments. And a lot of that is linked to the US dollar.
“The US Treasury has enormous power and influence over global trade simply because the US dollar is the main currency for settling that. Russia‘s main interest is in breaking the dominance of the US dollar.
“It wants BRICS countries to create an alternative trade mechanism and cross-border settlement system that does not involve the dollar, the euro or any of the G7 currencies so that sanctions won’t matter so much.”
Jim O’Neill, the former Chief Economist of Goldman Sachs, said many of the BRICS members were not like-minded.
He said: “In some ways, it’s a good job for the West that China and India can never agree about anything. Because if those two were really serious, Brics would have enormous influence.
“China and India are doing their best to avoid wanting to attack each other a lot of the time. Trying to get them to really cooperate on economic things is a never-ending challenge.
“The idea that they’re all going to fundamentally agree on something of great substance is bonkers really.”