Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed became the first Pakistani to address the official International BRICS Forum, hosted by current Chair, Russia, at the Russian Far Eastern port of Vladivostok, close to North Korea and Japan. The 2-day forum was organised by the ruling ‘United Russia’ Party. The Forum was informed that 29 countries, including Pakistan, are applicants for membership of BRICS, which now includes almost half the world’s population, contributing 30% of global GDP and 50% of global oil and gas producers amongst its members, a news release said. Mushahid Hussain, who is currently Co-Chairman of International Conference of Asian Political Parties (ICAPP), the largest organisation of political parties of Asia, as well as heading two think tanks in Pakistan, on China & Africa, gave a keynote speech in which he expressed the hope that ‘Pakistan hopes to join BRICS as Pakistan wants to be part of the new emerging order of the Global South’, adding ‘Pakistan as a member of the UN Security Council during 2025-2026 will be a robust voice for peace, justice and the oppressed’. Mushahid Hussain said that the ‘post World War 2 Western-propped global economic and political order was already unraveling and organisations like BRICS and Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) would be the pillars of this emerging new global order, which will derive its strength from the United Nations Charter, international law and the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, rejecting hegemony, military dictate and double standards’. He said an expanded BRICS can make a ‘major contribution to promoting three major trends of contemporary international relations: 1) Democratisation of international relations through dialogue and inter-state relationships based on equality and rule of law;2) Demilitarisation of international relations, as the Western world order in the 21st Century is in the grip of a new Cold War hysteria, arming Israel to kill Palestinians or promotion of ‘Asian NATO’ and building groups like QUAD and AUKUS to contain China and Russia;3) Dedollarisation of the international financial system, with the US often using the dollar currency as a political weapon, as now 68 of 193 member states of the UN are already embarked on this process, while Saudi Arabia has ended its 50 year old agreement with the United States regarding petrodollars and Saudi oil is now also trading in non-dollar currencies’. On the need for a new approach to security issues, Mushahid Hussain welcomed the 14 June initiative of President Putin for a new Eurasian Security paradigm based on indivisible security of nations so that no one country’s security can be at the expense of others’. He also lauded a similar endeavour of President Xi Jinping for a ‘Global Security Initiative’. Finally, Mushahid Hussain thanked Russia and China for their principled position on the Gaza Genocide, underlining Israel has lost the war politically, morally, legally, and diplomatically, and Israeli supporters in the declining West have also been exposed for their double standards and aiding and abetting the Gaza Genocide, which is a crime against humanity as stated by the International Court of Justice. Mushahid Hussain Syed was introduced to the podium by Senator Andrei Klimov, Member of the Bureau of the Supreme Council of the United Russia Party and Head of its Foreign Relations.