Russian President Vladimir Putin said the newly expanded Brics group showed that a “multipolar world” is being created, in a challenge to the US-dominated global order.

Brics “meets the aspirations of the main part of the international community, the so-called world majority,” Putin said Wednesday at the formal opening of the leaders’ summit in Russia’s Kazan. It’s “especially in demand in the current conditions, when truly dramatic changes are taking place in the world, and the process of forming a multipolar world is underway.”

Russia is hosting the first summit since Brics expanded to nine members in January, with the United Arab Emirates, Iran, Egypt and Ethiopia joining Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa in the organization. More than 30 nations ranging from Thailand to Algeria and NATO-member Turkey have expressed interest in joining Brics, though existing members are split over the wisdom of further expansion for now.

“It would be wrong to ignore the unprecedented interest of the countries of the Global South and East in strengthening contacts with Brics,” Putin told his fellow leaders. “At the same time, it is necessary to maintain a balance.”

Putin is due to hold separate talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Iran’s Masoud Pezeshkian on the sidelines of the summit later Wednesday.

Brics’ clout is growing. Its nine members account for 26% of the world economy and 45% of the world’s population versus the Group of Seven’s 44% of global gross domestic product and 10% of its inhabitants. Brazil will host next month’s G-20 summit, following India’s presidency last year and ahead of South Africa’s in 2025.

Russia is under unprecedented sanctions from the US and its G-7 allies over Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The Russian leader’s seeking to reduce the impact on its economy by pushing for Brics states to reduce reliance on the dollar as a global reserve currency by boosting trade in national currencies.

While many Brics members favour greater use of national currencies in bilateral trade, they don’t have the same incentive to escape the dollar-based system. Some, including India, South Africa and the UAE, also oppose any perception of Brics as an anti-US body.

The three-day event is the biggest gathering of world leaders in Russia since it began the invasion of Ukraine, and the summit is being billed by the Kremlin as proof that Putin is not an outcast despite Western efforts to isolate him.

Putin stayed away from last year’s Brics summit after South Africa warned it would have to comply with an arrest warrant against him for alleged war crimes in Ukraine issued by the International Criminal Court in March last year.