BRICS nations to meet in South Africa to seek to mitigate Western dominance

JOHANNESBURG, Aug 17 (Reuters) – BRICS leaders will meet in South Africa next week to discuss how to turn a group of nations representing a quarter of the world’s economy into a geopolitical force that can challenge the West’s dominance in the world affairs.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who faces an international arrest warrant for alleged war crimes in Ukraine, will not join the leaders of Brazil, India, China and South Africa amid wrangling over whether to expand the bloc to include dozens of nations of the “Global South” lining up. bind.

South Africa will host Chinese President Xi Jinping, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the BRICS summit from August 22-24.

Spread across the globe and with economies operating in vastly different ways, the main thing that unites the BRICS is skepticism about a world order that they see as serving the interests of the United States and its wealthy country allies that promote international norms. They enforce but don’t always respect.

Few details have emerged about what they plan to discuss, but the expansion is expected to be high on the agenda as some 40 nations have shown interest in joining, either formally or informally, according to South Africa. They include Saudi Arabia, Argentina and Egypt.

“BRICS AND AFRICA”

China, which is seeking to expand its geopolitical influence while fighting the United States, wants to expand BRICS quickly, while Brazil resists expansionfearing that the already unwieldy club could see their stature diluted by it.

In a written response to questions from Reuters, China’s Foreign Ministry said it “supports progress in expanding membership and welcomes more like-minded partners to join the ‘BRICS family’ on a date next”.

Russia needs friends to counter its diplomatic isolation over Ukraine, so it wants to bring in new members, as does its most important African ally, South Africa.

India is on the fence.

In a nod to the bloc’s African hosts, the theme of its 15th summit is “BRICS and Africa”, emphasizing how the bloc can build ties with a continent that is increasingly becoming a theater for competition between world powers.

South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor, in a statement last week, said the BRICS nations wanted to show “global leadership to address the needs…of the majority of the world, namely…development and inclusion of the Global South in multilateral systems”. in a veiled blow to Western rule.

The BRICS nations are eager to project themselves as alternative development partners for the West. China’s Foreign Ministry said the BRICS were seeking to “reform global governance systems (to) increase the representation… of developing countries and emerging markets.”

The bloc’s New Development Bank (NDB) wants to de-dollarise finance and offer an alternative to the highly criticized Breton Woods institutions.

But it has approved only $33 billion in loans in nearly a decade, about a third of the amount the World Bank committed to disbursing last year, and has recently been hampered by sanctions against member Russia.

South African officials say talk of a BRICS currency, proposed by Brazil earlier this year as an alternative to dollar reliance, is out of the question.

With 40% of the world’s population, the carbon-intensive BRICS nations also account for roughly the same share of greenhouse gas emissions. Officials in Brazil, China and South Africa said climate change could emerge, but indicated it would not be a priority.

The BRICS countries blame rich nations for causing most of global warming and want them to shoulder more of the burden of decarbonizing the world’s energy supply. China was accused of blocking climate discussions at the G20, which he denied.

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