Shafaq News/The World later BRICS summit on Tuesday (August 22), will not remain the same after. This is what China, Russia, India, Brazil and South Africa hope to say, as these countries alone make up about half of the world’s population, about 30% of global GDP, and more than 16% of the volume of global trade, and are betting on creating a multipolar world, a term that means breaking the “unipolarity” represented by the West, specifically the United States.
The 15th BRICS summit in Johannesburg will not be normal by all standards, as it is the first since the coronavirus pandemic, and its agenda is full of major issues in light of the global tension arising from the Ukrainian war, the escalation of underlying tensions in East Asia, and the readiness of proxy fighting fronts in the Sahel regions after the Niger coup.
But the most important thing is, observers say that the summit, to which 67 global leaders were invited, will make fateful decisions related to starting work to issue a common financial currency, which means seeking to exclude the US dollar from the throne of world currencies, in addition to promoting the use of local currencies of the five countries in commercial operations among themselves, and establishing a system of mechanisms for joint payments, in addition to studying membership applications by countries such as Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Algeria, Egypt and Argentina.
Politicians and observers say that the BRICS group’s progress towards these goals certainly means huge changes in the balance of power, and also indicates that the United States, which has been almost alone, over the world since the collapse of the Soviet Union, is gradually losing its political and economic, and perhaps military, as well.
While the U.S. military defense budget reached a record $858 billion, BRICS military spending currently stands at $400 billion, but it also has 11 million troops, in addition to about 6,500 nuclear bombs (possecurs of China, Russia and India).
Despite its image as a clutter that challenges Western hegemony, the prestige of BRICS has nevertheless suffered a setback after it failed to ensure the presence of Russian President Vladimir Putin in person (he will participate through video technology) after South Africa came under Western pressure on the idea of his visit as Putin issued an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court regarding his role in the Ukraine war. But Minister Sergei Lavrov will represent Moscow at the summit, while Chinese President Xi Jiping as well as the leaders of Brazil, India and South Africa will attend. It was remarkable that the Johannesburg government deliberately announced recently that it had not invited French President Emmanuel Macron to attend the summit, although dozens of state leaders and governments will participate.
Even symbolically, BRICS is one of the most prominent indicators of the rise of alternative powers to the European-American duo that dominated international affairs over the past three centuries, and has taken a sharper turn since the American quasi-ination of controlling geopolitical conflicts politically and economically, after the end of the Cold War with the Soviet Union in 1991.
Through its share of the global economy, BRICS outperforms the G7 share, and the BRICS countries currently represent 40% of the world’s area, which is certainly increasing if other countries join it, and since its launch at the summit level in 2009, it does not hide its quest to become a global economic power, break the unilateralism represented by the West under the leadership of the United States, and establish a multipolar world order.
Since South Africa’s late accession, BRICS has been known to have remained almost closed to new members, and it is now trying to open membership doors now. The new members will have to adhere to the goals of the group, including combating poverty and sustainable development, promoting economic and social integration, strengthening security and peace to ensure economic growth and political stability, reforming international financial institutions to have a greater voice for emerging countries, and enhancing food security.
Among the most indicative steps of autonomy and breaking U.S. unilateralism, observers say, China’s decision in 2013 to launch the “Belt and Road” initiative a few months later at the BRICS summit in the South African city of Durban in 2013. This trend can also be clearly seen in BRICS’ decision to open the New Development Bank during the group’s summit in the Russian city of Ufa in 2015, a bank, based in the Chinese city of Shanghai, where BRICS is betting to serve as an alternative to the World Bank institutions, which is the financial arm of Western hegemony globally, and has an estimated capital of about $100 billion.
According to figures from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), “foreign investment has played an important role in the growth of BRICS economies since 2001, with annual FDI inflows to the bloc more than quadrupled from 2001 to 2021 (from $84 billion to $355 billion) and contributed significantly to the formation of gross fixed capital.”
The BRICS summit in Russian St. Petersburg in November 2020, in partnership with the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which serves as another alternative bloc to Western hegemony, and since 2001, has been another important indicator of the transformations underway globally, an organization officially joined by Iran last July. According to some analysts, BRICS serves as the “economic-to-valancal arm” of the Shanghai Organization, a phenomenon still under development.
During the past months, experts and observers have estimated that the Ukrainian war in which Russia was involved accelerated the movement of Moscow, Beijing, and other countries in BRICS towards ensuring financial independence away from the US dollar, especially after the world witnessed the speed and severity of sanctions, which were imposed on relations, commercial and economic interests and the property of Russians around the world, and was a warning bell that prompted the leaders of the group countries to search for new financial options, to get rid of the “authoritarianism” of the dollar, which was used many times to besiege the weakening of countries and peoples during the past few decades, as in Iraq, Iran, Syria, Lebanon and others.
It can be said that the blocs and allies witnessed by the world, although they reflect a form of convergence in interests and goals and rapprochement between the countries of the bloc itself, but at the same time reflect the conflicts of major countries and the transition from grinding military wars, to the struggle for economic interests, to ensure continuity and survival prosperity, even at the expense of other countries or blocs, which are goals that sometimes inevitably require resorting to battlefronts and trenches.
If BRICS carries an indication of alternative blocs, history also says that the world has seen the rise and fall of other blocs, for example the Warsaw Pact (founded in 1955) to counter NATO, which represents Western Europe and the United States. The world also witnessed the fall of the so-called “Siato” Southeast Asian Nations, founded in 1954, with the support of Washington to counter Moscow’s influence.
The Baghdad Pact (founded in 1955) and annexed Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Britain and Pakistan, also fell to counter the Soviet expansion and the Nasserite revolution. There was also the “Rio Alliance” (1947), representing the first alliance of its kind after the end of the end of World War II and included countries of the Americas, but it is now with little influence under Washington’s absolute dominance.
However, there are global blocs that are still active in the year, besides NATO, which has existed since 1949, there is the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, and the bloc of countries of the “Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for the Trans-Pacific Partnership” formed in 2018 after the announcement of the United States’ exit from its founding nucleus by the administration of former President Donald Trump. The bloc includes Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam, and collectively accounts for about 15% of GDP globally.
There is also the Group of 7, the ECOS security alliance that has been bringing the United States together with Britain and Australia since 2021, in order to counter China’s influence, and there is the Quad Quad Quad Alliance (2007), which Washington is trying to strengthen with India, Australia and Japan, to also contribute to China’s encirclement and counter its influence in the Asia-Pacific region. There is also the North American Free Trade Organization (NAFTA), the Southeast Asian Association (ASEAN), and the Five Eyes Alliance, which includes the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and coordinates with Denmark, France, the Netherlands, and Norway, through intelligence and security cooperation.
In addition, there is the Common Market of South American States (MERCOSUR), the Arab Maghreb Union, the Baltic Free Trade Area, and the Commonwealth of Independent States, along with the Gulf Cooperation Council.
Special: Shafaq News Agency
https://www.shafaq.com/ar/تقارير-وتحليلات/قمة-بريكس-هل-يتغير-العالم-بعدها
