We now have the honor of listening to the speech of the President of the Russian Federation, His Excellency Vladimir Putin. Please, the floor is given to you. [applause] Thank you very much. Thank you, dear friends, dear Mr. Prime Minister, dear colleagues, heads of state, and, friends in the hall, representatives of the business community of our countries. Today's event traditionally precedes the BRICS summit. Its representative composition underlines the growing interest in strengthening business contacts throughout the entire space of our association. It is clear that strong economic partnerships and reliable business ties largely form the foundation of international relations, making them more resilient and stable, and enabling us to overcome the crises facing the modern world. And today it is going through a stage of profound structural transformations. They are caused by the fact that the old leaders, well, let's say, the old leaders who were at the forefront of economic growth in the second half of the last century, are being replaced by new locomotives of development. Of course, when I say old, it’s conditional, but we all know and understand what I’m talking about. And these so-called old leaders, they still possess large, powerful advantages today, a well-developed infrastructure, technological advantages, scientific schools, and so on. But still, this is what always happens in nature. This is always the case in the human world. And in economics this happens inevitably. Changes happen all the time, the world is changing. Objective statistics prove this. So, over the last 5 years, more than one colleague from Indonesia has already said this, I think. Over the past 5 years, more than 40% of the world's GDP has been produced by BRICS countries. While the contribution of the big seven, the so- called Big Seven. I don’t understand why it’s so big, but it only made up 29%. [clears throat] Well, if we talk about the growth of the global economy over the same period, then almost half of this growth was provided by the countries of our union. And the seven gave only 18%. What is the reason for this dynamic? The answer is simple. In fact, the BRICS countries, home to about half the world's population, have huge, dynamic domestic markets. In our countries, cities are developing and growing rapidly . Urbanization is occurring rapidly, and national companies are increasingly asserting themselves as global players. For example, the Indian company TEK Mahindra offers effective platform-based digital solutions, including those based on artificial intelligence. China's Huawei is a world-class global technology giant . Brazil has a strong position in the aerospace industry. DP, a United Arab Emirates-based company, operates efficiently in the logistics sector . Russia's Rosatom is the recognized number one in the field of peaceful nuclear energy. There are many such corporate success stories in our countries. Behind each of them lies intense daily work in the face of serious competition. And I would like to talk about this separately , about competition. We've been told all along that competition is a sacred cow. She must not be touched at all . But, unfortunately, your Western competitors are today trying by any means possible to regain their former leadership. This competition today sometimes takes on unsightly forms, as a colleague from the IRA just mentioned. Moreover, such unsightly forms are at the state level. Even instruments of direct physical impact or destruction of industrial and logistics facilities, pipelines, and so on are photographed. Attempts are being made to block international transport corridors and seize sea vessels. Illegal restrictions are also applied, along with threats of so -called secondary sanctions, against those who do not agree to act in the interests of others, but rather defend their own national interests. I know that colleagues here can cite hundreds of such examples, but more than 30,000 sanctions have been imposed on Russia. This is almost twice as much as against all the countries of the world combined. These are the statistics. In the most difficult conditions, Russia acted with confidence in its own strengths, relying on the capabilities of domestic business, science, technology, education, our engineering schools, our people, and the citizens of Russia. And the house achieved positive results. We have strengthened our national sovereignty and are developing ties with reliable, predictable partners. In just 4 years, the geography of our foreign trade has changed dramatically. Structural changes have been launched in the Russian economy. They made her stronger, more resilient and more mobile. As a result, in the previous three years, economic growth rates in Russia exceeded the global average. From 23 to 25, GDP increased by 10.3%, and unemployment dropped to a record, historically record-breaking 2.3%. We have given the green light to large-scale technological innovations, with the introduction of artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, digital platforms, and modern financial instruments. Moreover, these innovations are primarily based on Russia's own solutions, as well as on the developments of our BRICS partners. All this once again proves that even under severe external constraints, it is possible to set ambitious goals and achieve them successfully. We must also state something else. that in countries that initiate sanctions pressure, which are facing full-blown problems of budget deficits, growing public debts and industrial decline, it is not possible to implement such a policy. It turns out that they themselves were faced with difficult, difficult consequences for them. This is not some kind of speculation, this is data from their statistics. Here I said about deficits. budget, spoke about the growing national debt, about the industrial decline. This is all a fact of life. In the eurozone, the leading economy of the eurozone, I won’t point fingers, but an 8% decline in industrial production over the past few years is a lot for them . Our shared goal is to realize the potential of BRICS for the benefit of our countries and our peoples, to strengthen mechanisms for practical business cooperation, so-called business diplomacy, so that it is easier for companies and entrepreneurs to find partners, conduct payments, transport goods, and invest in our countries. At the same time, we do not want to limit ourselves in any way, to become isolated at the national, corporate, or even general level of our partnership. We don’t build our work against anyone at all. We are for ourselves, for our interests, but we are ready to cooperate with all our partners. I already said, there are old people there, not old, with the whole world. We are open to working with the whole world. I am confident that the business forum will become the mechanism that will provide additional impetus to the development of trade and economic ties. Can implement a variety of project ideas, including in the fields of infrastructure, logistics, finance, and technological cooperation in other areas. To intensify this work, a National Committee on BRICS Business Cooperation has been established in Russia. It included more than 40 representatives of the largest domestic companies. The committee's task is to develop a meaningful program of interaction with foreign partners. Let me reiterate: Russia is open to interesting and promising initiatives in industry, trade, and tourism. We are ready to contribute to global energy and food security with our partners, and to work together to develop reliable, global routes, such as the transcontinental transport corridor and the international north-south corridor. and, of course, we intend to deepen cooperation in training personnel for applied scientific research, including in the field of smart technologies, unmanned transport, and so on. I will add that the development of business ties requires effective financial mechanisms. The new development bank is already working in this direction . Russia proposed creating a new investment platform based on it. It should help attract additional private investment in infrastructure, technology, and other sectors that determine the competitiveness of our countries. We hope that this idea will find support among the members of our association. Dear friends, through the joint efforts of government bodies, businesses, and expert circles, BRICS is forming a new sustainable platform for global growth. It is very important that its key elements, the rules of the company and organization's work, are not imposed from the outside, are not imposed on us, the so-called golden billions, just as we do not impose anything on anyone. Our rules are based on innovative business approaches and breakthrough technological solutions, and put the national interests of states and the interests of our peoples at the forefront. Yes, this is complex, painstaking work, but the BRICS countries have proven that they can work hard, work honestly, cooperate equally, see the big picture and mutually beneficial prospects, and can respond to any challenge, which means our endeavors will be successful. I wish you all the best. Thank you for your attention.