Mahmoud Abbas: Palestine will attend BRICS summit

(Patria) - Palestine expects an invitation to attend the BRICS summit in Russia this autumn in an "outreach" format, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas told TASS yesterday after a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Abbas arrived on an official visit to Moscow on August 12.

"We discussed our vision regarding possible developments in the near future and what they could lead to in such complicated times," he said in an interview with TASS.

"We also certainly discussed bilateral relations, as we have a very long-standing strategic relationship with Russia," the Palestinian leader continued.

"Therefore, we discussed the bilateral ties between Russia and Palestine, relations that we always firmly support, both in personal meetings and at the level of phone calls. We discussed the prospects for their further development."

"We also discussed BRICS. We reached a verbal agreement that Palestine would be invited (to this forum) in an 'outreach' format," Abbas said.

According to the Palestinian leader, "a special meeting format could be organized dedicated exclusively to Palestine, so that all countries could present their views on the developments happening in this region".

"All of this will be as relevant as possible, given the fact that the member countries of this association are all friendly towards Palestine," Abbas said.

Russia assumed the one-year presidency of BRICS on January 1, and the central BRICS summit will be held in Kazan in October 2024.

Abbas also said that he managed to discuss "all issues of interest to both sides" with Russian President Putin and that the "meeting lasted almost two hours".