CONSEQUENCES OF THE BRICS 2022 SUMMIT DECLARATION

Foreword

BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) met in China for the 14^th Summit.

The BRICS nations have a populations of 3 billion and  the IMF suggest that BRICS could be responsible for 50% of all global trade by the 2030’s.

Chinese President Xi Jinping used his speech to launch an invective against the West over its having a Cold War mentality and imposing illegal sanctions. He also espoused the line that emerging nations must oppose US hegemony and work toward the creation of a multipolar way.

BRICS 2022 Summit Declaration

The Declaration runs to 75 points. Let's consider the most interesting issues.

The UN Security Council is unbalanced and represents US and EU security issues as opposed to global matters. This includes the invasion of Afghanistan, and more recently, the Russia-Ukraine conflict, which is being sold as a “Russian invasion” by the G7 being in reality a proxy war between Russia and NATO expansionism.

BRICS support dialogue between Russia and Ukraine. Amid simmering geo-political tensions, BRICS nations have supported diplomacy and dialogue between Russia and Ukraine.

It is time to restructure the World Trade Organisation (WTO), World Bank (WB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) - being too US-centric as opposed to operating a more global view - and place them on a stronger, more secure financial footing with regular capital commitments from members. 

Other important issues BRICS deal with are nuclear disarmament, weapons in space, terrorism, drugs and internet security. All the problems BRICS identify  ultimately call for continuing and improved UN support, indicating that the BRICS collectively want a greater say and representation within global security bodies.

The intent is to develop a non-US dollar based trading platform that will permit BRICS settlements between member states. Russia also stated  that its SPFS payment system could be expanded to include BRICS members. The BRICS nations are also studying a communal BRICS cryptocurrency and digital wallet platforms for intra-BRICS trade.

BRICS holds the key to global food security. Brazil is the world’s second largest soy bean producer, Russia the world’s largest wheat producer, India the world’s second largest rice producer, while China produces 25% of the global grain harvest and South Africa is the world’s ninth largest producer of corn.

Membership of BRICS is actively being discussed with many partners and additional nations are expected from Latin America, Africa and the Middle East  within the next two years.

Comments on the Declaration

The overall tone of the BRICS declaration 2022 can be seen as a pathway to a far larger influential entity,  where  each of the BRICS members  has extensive additional regional free trade and economic partnerships.

The three main themes that can be taken from this document are firstly, the pathway to an inclusive bloc that has the potential to develop into both a formal and informal grouping that could influence up to three-quarters of total global trade.

Secondly, the call for reform within numerous multinational institutions. UN, WTO, WB and related institutions require a shakeup and a divestment of global power and influence away from Washington and spread more equally among the emerging countries of the world. This would be the biggest single shake-up of World Order since the end of the previous British Empire.

Third, the overriding concerns as regards getting Africa well and truly on its feet and delivering its potential.  BRICS and to a larger extent than is generally recognised, the European and global communities are dependent upon Africa to deliver. The BRICS Summit Declaration 2022 is, as Xi Jinping suggests, a document that should be read by everyone to ascertain where future development flows, problems and opportunities can be seen, dealt with and pave the way to a more inclusive, and fairer, multi-polar global society.

Developing and Emerging Countries

The  unifying trait among the BRICS is a willingness to give emerging countries a greater voice in global multilateral institutions.

In addition to being large countries in terms of population, land mass and economic activity, the BRICS countries to a certain extent represent wide geographical regions. By actively supporting both the expansion of BRICS and the development of "BRICS Plus," the BRICS family is set to become an indispensable forum for the support and collective interests of developing and emerging countries.

The historic mission of BRICS is essentially to consolidate, defend and expand a multipolar international order, based on international law and the United Nations, and overcome centuries of underdevelopment and entrenched inequality between the Global North and Global South.

The present context is characterized by enormous possibilities and opportunities that are typical of times of crisis and paradigm shifts.  BRICS may become in the coming years the platform for developing countries to have greater weight in decisions about the destinies of humanity.

No matter how big the obstacles and crises are, the BRICS countries will not stop striving to establish a more equitable and rational global governance environment. Maintain existing development momentum, seize the rare historical opportunity, and enhance the global governance capacity and share of voice.

China, Russia and US

As the United States economy crumbles and global tensions rise, BRICS offers economic shelter for America’s opponents. Xi Jinping criticized the West for “weaponizing” the global economy and called on emerging countries to join a new economic bloc. Reuters reported on June 28 that Iran and Argentina have applied to join the BRICS economic group.

“The Ukraine crisis is another wake-up call for all in the world,” Xi said “It reminds us that blind faith in the so-called “position of strength” and attempts to expand military alliances and seek one’s own security at the expense of others will only land oneself in a security dilemma.” Both Putin and Xi have blamed the Ukraine war and the resultant economic crisis on the West.

China could soon find itself in a similar situation as Russia. The same is true for Iran. All of them seek independence from the United States dollar.  There are indications now, however, that the world is moving away from the US system.

The digital yuan “could circumvent the U.S. dollar in important global financial transactions.” China, India and Russia are also exploring an alternative to the US-dominated swift payment mechanism. Russia is also working on an alternative to the Western payment mechanism.

The US is largely living on debt sustained by high demand for the dollar. The less demand there is for the dollar, the greater the fear of economic collapse.

China established the New Development Bank, formerly the BRICS Development Bank, as part of a burgeoning Beijing-backed international economic system, which also includes the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).

Significance of the Summit for China

The new NATO mission statement, also known as a strategic concept, identified Russia as its primary adversary, while China was  declared a systemic “challenge”. The country’s policies were “coercive,” its cyberoperations “malicious” and its rhetoric “confrontational.” Together with Russia, Beijing was striving to “subvert the rules-based international order,”-  the Alliance said - efforts that “run counter to our values and interests.”

For Beijing, the forceful declaration by NATO reinforced a sense that China is being encircled by hostile powers bent on hobbling the country’s ascent. Adding to that concern, the NATO summit included, also for the first time, the leaders of four Asia-Pacific countries: South Korea, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. “The United States wants to hit three birds with one stone  constraining China, destroying Russia and harming Europe,”

Set against a complex geopolitical backdrop that includes war in Europe and growing economic decoupling between China and the US, the 2022 Summit provides Beijing with a timely platform to promote its vision for how international relations should be conducted.

BRICS is a kind of diplomatic counteroffensive by China to both the revival of NATO and the increase in Indo-Pacific mechanisms that are designed to keep its power in check.

Through BRICS, China continues to draw on its legacy of always siding with the third world.

Considerations

Beijing and Moscow are trying to re-purpose the BRICS group into an anti-U.S. Coalition as the BRICS countries share a common dissatisfaction with the status quo.

The main thing that is keeping the leaders of these very different countries engaged, year after year, is their shared ambition for greater representation on the global stage. They feel excluded from the club of developed, former colonial powers led by the United States whose hegemony has produced the international order.

The West has for a long time underestimated the importance of the Global South: developing countries will become increasingly important to the BRICS as trade partners, as sources of legitimacy on the global stage, and as battlegrounds to set international standards for emerging technologies.

As the most prominent and established political grouping of non-G-7 countries, the BRICS will continue to be an important vehicle for BRICS’s mission to increase its clout.

Some officials in NATO countries have anyway expressed unease about lumping Russia and China together, arguing that it could backfire by driving Beijing and Moscow even closer together.

Conclusion

Closer linkages between Europe and China and Russia provoked the US agenda to prevent that integration or delay it. This agenda, now deepened during the recent  G7 meeting in Germany and the NATO Summit  in Spain, is creating a dangerous situation for the world.

NATO’s Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has said   that the organisation will undergo the largest overhaul of its “collective deterrence and defence since the Cold War”. The NATO member states, now with the addition of Finland and Sweden, will expand   their “high readiness forces” from 40,000 troops to 300,000 “ready to deploy to specific territories on the alliance’s eastern flank’, namely the Russian border. This was not merely about Ukraine or Russia but about preventing Eurasian integration.

While NATO’s language has turned to threats of war against China and Russia, the G7 has pledged to challenge China-led initiatives by developing the new Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGII), a $200 billion fund  to oppose BRI project. Meanwhile, the leaders at the BRICS summit, held at the same time, offered a sober appraisal of the times, calling for negotiations to end the Ukraine War and measures to be taken to stem the cascading crises experienced by the world’s poor.

There was no talk of war from this body which represents   40% of the world’s population, and BRICS’s strength may well grow as Argentina and Iran have applied to join the bloc.

The US and its allies seek either to remain hegemonic and weaken China and Russia or to erect a new iron curtain around these two countries. Both approaches could lead to a suicidal military conflict. The mood across the Global South is for a more measured acceptance of the reality of Eurasian integration and the emergence of a world order based on national and regional sovereignty and the dignity of all human beings, none of which can be realised through war and division.