At their meeting in Pretoria preparing for the summit of leaders from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa next month, they carefully avoided naming the US president in their criticism.

Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Lindiwe Sisulu tried to hand off a question about US trade tariffs by saying she and her counterparts had not discussed individual countries.

Her BRICS counterparts were having none of it.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang YI said BRICS must form a common position and respond vigorously to protectionism s

His Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj BRICS promoted the concept of a global family. 

“The multilateral system is  like a family and if anyone speaks of protectionism we would join in condemning it,” she said.

Protectionism  is expected to become a  hot button issue at the full BRICS in Sandton next month.

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