2023-08-21 14:04:04
The group of emerging economies BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) will begin their XV Summit of Heads of State and Government this Tuesday in Johannesburg to address -among other issues- the expansion of the block and with the controversial absence of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.
The conference, which starts this Tuesday and will last until next Thursday at the Sandton Convention Center, the financial heart of the South African city, constitutes the first face-to-face summit of the BRICS since 2019, a period in which these meetings were held by video conference because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The presidents of Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva; China, Xi Jinping; and South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa; as well as the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, they will be able to greet each other with a handshake, but Putin will not suffer that fate. The Russian president will be absent due to the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) against him for alleged war crimes in Ukrainealthough he will intervene for via telematics and will be represented by his Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sergei Lavrov.
If Putin set foot in Johannesburg, South Africa, as a member state of the ICC, he would be forced to stop hima fact that would cause a very serious diplomatic crisis and would have ruined the summit.
In addition, South Africa has invited 67 leaders from the Global South to the appointment, including the presidents of CubaMiguel Díaz-Canel, and Bolivia, Luis Arce. 20 dignitaries from international organizations are also invited, such as the Secretary General of the HIM, Antonio Guterresand the president of the Commission of the african union, Moussa Faki Mahamat.
“I think this is a very important summit. I have never seen so much attention for a BRICS summit,” international policy expert Sanusha Naidu, from The Institute for Global Dialogue, a think tank based in Barcelona, told the Efe news agency. Praetorship.
BRICS expansion
Although few details are known about the meeting’s agenda, it is expected that the expansion of the block is the star theme. Some 40 countries have expressed interest in joining that club, according to the South African government, which led the bloc’s first enlargement in 2010 and holds the group’s rotating presidency this year.
“The current geopolitical context has prompted a renewed interest in the BRICS membership as the countries of the Global South seek alternatives in a multipolar world,” said the South African Minister of International Relations, Naledi Pandor, on the 7th. The minister revealed that she has received “formal expressions of interest from the leaders of 23 countries”, including Argentina, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Bolivia, Cuba, Honduras, Venezuela, Algeria o Indonesia.
The bloc, which has yet to agree on the admission criteriaseeks more weight in international institutions, hitherto dominated by USA y Europaalthough Pandor was quick to clarify that the BRICS I’m not “anti-West”.
The group’s two autocracies, China and Russia, enthusiastically embrace the idea of opening the door to new members. Beijing wants to expand its geopolitical influence in competition with the United States, while Moscow needs friends to counter its diplomatic isolation brought on by the war in Ukraine. However, the rest of the bloc’s partners -South Africa, Brazil and India- have shown more content support.
“de-dollarization”
The group is also expected to address the “de-dollarization” of their economiesthat is, the local currency boost to trade against the dollar, a position supported by the New Development Bank (NDB)established by the BRICS in 2015.
The diplomat Eduardo Saboia, “sherpa” (negotiator) of Brazil for the BRICS, announced last week that the summit will host “the discussion on the use of local currencies for commercial transactions” and that “it is possible that there will be a result in that area “.
The dollar has gained ground against emerging market currencies since Russia invaded Ukraine and the US Federal Reserve began raising interest rates to combat inflation in early 2022, a move that made dollar debt more expensive. expensive for those countries.
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What will not be put on the table, according to the South African organizers, is the creation of a common currency of the BRICS, which Lula fervently defends.
Brazil, Russia, India and China created the BRIC group in 2006, to which South Africa joined in 2010 by adding the letter S to the acronym. The bloc represents more than 42% of the world’s population and 30% of the planet’s territory, as well as 23% of the gross domestic product (GDP) and 18% of global trade.
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