"The meeting with President Vladimir Putin, which will take place in the evening, is, of course, the most important one for me," Dodik said.
The leader of one of the autonomous entities making up Bosnia and Herzegovina praised the "historical" BRICS summit, which, he said, "demonstrated that the West has failed to isolate Russia."
"I also want to tell him [Putin] about the difficulties that we are facing in our economic cooperation, primarily due to Western sanctions. With that, I want to discuss with him the ways for us to preserve our contacts, as we undoubtedly do not want to lose Russia as our partner," Dodik said.
BRICS is an intergovernmental association which Brazil, Russia, India and China created in 2006, and South Africa joined in 2010. The group had its second expansion this year, admitting Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. The latter has reportedly not formalized its membership but has been taking part in BRICS meetings.
The Russian city of Kazan is hosting a top-level BRICS summit from October 22-24 as part of Russia's 2024 chairmanship in the bloc. Moscow focused its agenda around the strengthening of multipolarity for a just global development and security. Dozens of leaders of non-member states are in Kazan for bilateral and multilateral events on the sidelines.