BRICS Summit 2023
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Leaders of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) are gathering in Johannesburg, South Africa, this week for a pivotal meeting for the bloc’s trajectory. Russian President Vladimir Putin is not attending due to an International Criminal Court warrant. Moscow and Beijing will be pushing for the group’s expansion to strengthen the bloc as an alternative to the U.S.-led liberal international order. Over 40 countries have applied to join. Brazil and India fear that expansion will dilute their influence and impact their nonaligned foreign policies, China and Russia would like to position BRICS as counterweight to the G7 Group (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, United States, United Kingdom)) and other Wester-led alignments.
For more details about BRICS, please refer to excerpt from wikipedia, in italics, below:
BRICS is a grouping of the world economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa formed by the 2010 addition of South Africa to the predecessor BRIC.[1][2][3][4] The original acronym “BRIC”, or “the BRICs”, was coined in 2001 by Goldman Sachs economist Jim O’Neill to describe fast-growing economies that he predicted would collectively dominate the global economy by 2050.[5]
The BRICS encompass about 27% of the world’s land surface and 42% of the global population.[a] Brazil, Russia, India, and China are among the world’s ten largest countries by population, area, and GDP (PPP), and the latter three are widely considered to be current superpowers or are still emerging. All five states are members of the G20, with a combined nominal GDP of US$28 trillion (about 27% of the gross world product), a total GDP (PPP) of around US$57 trillion (33% of global GDP PPP), and an estimated US$4.5 trillion in combined foreign reserves (as of 2018).[7][8]
The BRICS were originally identified for the purpose of highlighting investment opportunities and had not been a formal intergovernmental organization.[9] Since 2009, they have increasingly formed into a more cohesive geopolitical bloc, with their governments meeting annually at formal summits and coordinating multilateral policies. Bilateral relations among BRICS are conducted mainly on the basis of non-interference, equality, and mutual benefit.[10]
The BRICS nations are considered a geopolitical rival to the G7 bloc of leading advanced economies, announcing competing initiatives such as the New Development Bank, the BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement, the BRICS payment system, the BRICS Joint Statistical Publication and the BRICS basket reserve currency. Since 2022, the group has sought to expand membership, with several developing countries expressing interest in joining.[11] BRICS have received both praise[12][13][14][15] and criticism[16][17][18] from numerous commentators.
In August 2023, at the 15th BRICS Summit, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates had been invited to join the bloc. Full membership will take effect on 1 January 2024.[19][20]
History
The BRIC
The term BRIC was originally developed in the context of foreign investment strategies. It was introduced in the 2001 publication, Building Better Global Economic BRICs by then-chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Jim O’Neill.[21]
The foreign ministers of the initial four BRIC General states (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) met in New York City in September 2006 at the margins of the General Debate of the UN Assembly, beginning a series of high-level meetings.[22] A full-scale diplomatic meeting was held in Yekaterinburg, Russia, on 16 June 2009.[23]
The BRIC grouping’s 1st formal summit, also held in Yekaterinburg, commenced on 16 June 2009,[24] with Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Dmitry Medvedev, Manmohan Singh, and Hu Jintao, the respective leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, and China, all attending.[25] The summit’s focus was on improving the global economic situation and reforming financial institutions, and discussed how the four countries could better co-operate in the future.[24][25] There was further discussion of ways that developing countries, such as 3/4 of the BRIC members, could become more involved in global affairs.[25]
In the aftermath of the 2009 Yekaterinburg summit, the BRIC nations announced the need for a new global reserve currency, which would have to be “diverse, stable and predictable.”[26] Although the statement that was released did not directly criticize the perceived “dominance” of the US dollar – something that Russia had criticized in the past – it did spark a fall in the value of the dollar against other major currencies.[27]
Saudi Arabia and Iran are among six countries invited to formally join the China- and Russia-led BRICS group of emerging economies on Thursday, bolstering the group’s clout as it asserts itself as a viable challenger to the Western hegemony that has dominated global affairs for centuries, in the video published on Aug 24, 2023, by Forbes Breaking News, as “BRICS Summit In Johannesburg: Six New Nations Including Saudi Arabia & Iran Invited To Join“, below:
BRICS, a group of emerging market nations, has grown over the years. Now, the group has six new members with disparate economies and objectives, in the video published on Aug 25, 2023, by Bloomberg Television, as “The Expansion of BRICS“, below:
Zongyuan Zoe Lui, the Maurice R. Greenberg Fellow for China Studies, joins “Forbes Newsroom” to discuss the BRICS Summit and coalition, the alliance between China and Russia, how this affects the U.S., and more, in the video published on Aug 25, 2023, by Forbes Breaking News, as “What Is BRICS And Why Is It So Important To The U.S.? China Expert Breaks It All Down“, below:
Editor for The Grayzone Max Blumenthal previews the upcoming summit of “BRICS” nations, in the video published on Aug 24, 2023, by The Hill, as “Western Hegemony FALLING APART, BRICS Now Controls 40% WORLD’S GDP & DE-DOLLARIZING“, below:
In the video published on Aug 24, 2023, by Lena Petrova, CP…, as “BRICS 2023 EXPANSION: UAE, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia and Argentina Join The Bloc“, below:
One cannot help but wonder if every one (developed as well as developing nations) would had been better off if we all went back on the Gold Standard.(gold standard will be discussed in the next post, “Is It Time To Return To Gold Standard?“).
Gathered, written, and posted by Windermere Sun-Susan Sun Nunamaker More about the community at www.WindermereSun.com
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