BRICS leaders to meet in South Africa next week to discuss how to turn a loose club of nations accounting for a quarter of the global economy into a geopolitical force that can challenge the West’s Dominance in international affairs.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who faces an international arrest warrant over alleged war crimes in Ukraine, will not join leaders from Brazil, China, South Africa and India amid rifts over whether to expand the bloc to include dozens of Global South nations queuing up to join.
South Africa will host Chinese President Xi Jinping, Brazil Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Indian Priem Minister Narendra Modi for the BRICS Summit to be held from August 22 to August 24, 2023.
Spread over the globe, with economies that operate in vastly different ways, the main thing uniting the BRICS is the scepticism about a world order they see as serving the interests of the USA and its rich country allies who promote international norms; they enforce but do not always respect.
Expansion of BRICS
Few details have emerged high on about what they plan to discuss, but the expansion is expected to be high on the agenda as some forty nations have expressed their interest in joining it, either formally or informally, according to South Africa. They include Argentina, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
China, seeking to expand its influence geopolitically as it tussles with the United States of America, wants to enlarge BRICS quickly, while Brazil is resisting expansion, fearing that the unwieldy club could see its stature diluted by it.
In a written response to Reuters questions, the Chinese foreign ministry said it supports progress in expanding membership and welcomes more like-minded people and partners to join the BRICS family at an early date.”
The Russian Federation needs friends to counter its diplomatic isolation over Ukraine, and so is keen to bring in new members as its most important African ally, that is, South Africa. India is on the fence
Theme of Summit
In a nod to the bloc’s African hosts, the theme of the BRICS Summit is “BRICS And Africa”, emphasising how the bloc can build ties with a continent increasingly becoming a theatre for competition between world powers.
In a statement last week, South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandour said that the BRICS nation wanted to show global leadership in addressing the needs of the majority of the world, namely the development and inclusion of Global South countries in multi-lateral systems in a veiled sweep at Western Dominance.
BRICS nations are keen to project themselves as alternate development partners to the West. The Chinese Foreign Ministry said BRICS sought to reform global governance systems to increase the representation of developing countries and emerging markets.
New Currency Initiative
The Blocs New Development Bank wants to de-dollarize the finance and offer an alternative to the much-criticised Bretton Woods Institutions. But it has approved only 33 billion of loans in decades; about a third of the World Bank committed to disbursing last year, and this has recently been hobbled by sanctions on member Russia.
The South African officials say talk of a BRICS currency mooted by Brazil earlier this year as an alternative to dollar dependence is off the table.
BRICS Environmental Concerns
With 40 per cent global population, the BRICS carbon-intensive nations also make up about the same numbers of greenhouse gas emissions. Officials in Brazil, China and South Africa said climate change may come up but indicated it would not be a priority.
BRICS countries blame rich nations for causing most of the global warming and want them to take on more burden of decarbonising the world’s energy supply. China was accused of blocking climate discussions at the G-20, which it denied.
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