By Ignacio Ramonet on October 19, 2024
The appeal of BRICS is also being felt in Europe, where countries such as Serbia aspire to be in BRICS
The 16th BRICS+ Summit takes place from October 22-24 in Kazan, Russia. This summit will be attended by the five newly co-opted countries – Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Iran and Ethiopia. The new 10-member BRICS+ alliance will define the group’s broad directions for a stronger partnership that is radically transforming global geopolitics.
Some 59 countries from Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe and Latin America have expressed interest in joining BRICS+, including Turkey, which is considerable, as Turkey is a member of NATO and aspires to join the European Union. Other candidates to join BRICS+ are Venezuela, Colombia, Bolivia, Cuba, Honduras, Belarus, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Kazakhstan, Algeria, Kuwait, Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Gabon and Serbia. The candidacies of Venezuela, Colombia, Honduras and Bolivia, in particular, constitute a serious setback for the United States, which is losing influence in its former backyard.
In 2023, trade within the BRICS increased significantly and is expected to reach $500 billion by 2024. The key initiative of the BRICS is their de-dollarization project, to reduce their dependence on the U.S. dollar, favoring the use of their own currencies. China and Russia are leading efforts with concrete actions to realize this project. Five oil exporting countries are now part of the BRICS+. If these nations decide to demand payment for oil in local currencies, the impact on the U.S. dollar could be very significant. This would strengthen the BRICS’ autonomy in international finance and reduce their dependence on the U.S. dollar and Western financial systems such as SWIFT. Discussions are giving way to concrete actions, allowing the use of BRICS currencies or even a possible new common currency.
This development is a key element of the BRICS+ 2024 agenda, which aims to strengthen their role on the global financial stage. Work is underway to develop a BRICS Bridge multilateral digital payments platform aimed at improving the efficiency of the trading system among members.
The countries of the Global South are showing the desire to set up an alternative financial order that will make it possible to bypass both the IMF and the dollar thanks, in particular, to the BRICS+ New Development Bank, currently managed by Dilma Rousseff, which has all the conditions to become the great bank of the Global South because it will lend money with the prospect of helping countries and not suffocating them.
Recently, Vladimir Putin also raised the idea of building a BRICS Parliament of his own. Such a Parliament, an alternative UN, would allow the transformation of BRICS+ into an organization with a vocation to challenge and compensate for the imbalance existing today within the United Nations.
Moreover, the BRICS are also strengthening ties with the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), founded in 2001 by China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, joined by India and Pakistan in 2016, Iran in 2021 and Belarus in 2024. The goal of the SCO is to ensure collective security against terrorism, extremism and separatism.
The appeal of BRICS is also being felt in Europe, where countries such as Serbia aspire to become BRICS+ members and at the same time EU candidates. Some EU members wish to explore opportunities for collaboration with the BRICS. For example, with regard to Africa, they consider that it would be relevant to explore synergies between European aid and BRICS assistance, while respecting the principles of non-interference and the cultural and political identity of African countries. This cooperation could offer promising opportunities for constructive partnerships between the EU and the BRICS.
The BRICS are the spearhead of what we call the Global South, i.e. the countries formerly called the Third World, where three quarters of humanity live, the main victims of the harmful effects of globalization, but which possess most of the genetic diversity, unique species and fragile ecosystems of the planet and which refuse to align themselves with one or the other of the powerful of the Global North, the other name for the West.
The common denominator among these countries is their former status as colonies or protectorates of certain countries of the Global North. In this sense, the emergence of the Global South is in line with the Tricontinental Conference held in Havana in 1966. The Global South questions the current world order.
The very different treatment applied by the Global North to Russia and Israel during the current conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, respectively, arouses a sense of protest among the countries of the Global South: the conviction that the West does not apply the same rules everywhere, and shows a deep cynicism.
The rise of the BRICS+ and, more generally, of the entire Global South can no longer be ignored. The United States and its Western allies are very concerned about the rise of these new powers that question the world order dominated – for five centuries – by the West and reject, more particularly, Washington’s hegemony and unipolar ambitions.
Source: Cubadebate, translation Resumen Latinoamericano – English