On August 24, at the main business platform in Johannesburg, at Sandton Exhibition Center, the three-day 15th summit of the BRICS (BRICS) associate states, an interstate association that includes 5 states alleged "non-Western world": Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
The leaders of 60 states and the UN delegation came to the capital of South Africa to the leaders of the ‘five’. Organizer of the summit, president of South Africa Cyril RamaphosDuring his preparations, he repeatedly called the gathering in Johannesburg historic, and the summit as a full justified the hopes of its participants, becoming truly groundbreaking. The programme of the event included a number of areas, the main one, according to its slogan, "BRICS and Africa: Partnership for common acceleration of growth, sustainable improvement and inclusive multilateralism", outlined the place and function of association in the modern world, the criteria for possible BRICS expansion, as well as the anticipation of strengthening local currencies within the block and the improvement of a common payment system.
Speaking via video link, president of Russia Vladimir Putin He addressed the main problems facing the association today: the position of 5 countries on the planet stage, strengthening the interaction of the BRICS associate States, as well as settlement in national currencies, stressing that the BRICS countries are increasingly opposed to the US hegemony and the policy of neocolonialism of Western collective countries.
According to the Russian head of state in his speech: “We all unanimously support the creation of a multipolar planet order that is truly fair and based on global law, while respecting the key principles of the United Nations Charter, including sovereign law and respect for the right of each nation to its own model of development. We are against any hegemony promoted by any countries their exclusivity and based on this test of a fresh policy, a policy of continuing colonialism – neocolonialism".
According to abroad Minister Sergey Lavrov, who presided over the Russian delegation at the Johannesburg Summit, attempts to "collective West" reverse the trend of "neocolonialism" in the name of preserving their own hegemony have the other effect. The planet community is tired of blackmail and force from Western elites, their colonial and racist habits. Not only Russia, but besides a number of another countries consistently reduce their dependence on the US dollar, passing on alternate payment and settlement systems in national currencies. Here I callback the wise words of N. Mandela: “When water begins to boil, it is absurd to halt heating it up.” And it is.
President of China Xi Jinping urged BRICS to argue ideological confrontation. In his opinion, the associate States of the Association should argue the clash of different cultures and respect the means of modernisation, regardless of the improvement models chosen by each country.
The leaders of the BRICS associate States in their speeches at the summit almost unanimously stated that there was a request to step up the usage of national currencies in global trade and financial transactions between association countries. The importance of disseminating the benefits of low-cost, transparent, safe and inclusive national payment systems, road map elements for cross-border payments in BRICS countries, as well as measures to strengthen the implementation of the Action Plan on cross-border payments, has been highlighted. macroeconomic coordination, deepening cooperation to overcome the risks and challenges emerging in the global economy in the process of achieving global recovery and sustainable development.
Many business events took place in the summit's spheres with representatives of the South Africa economical Block and the BRICS associate States, as well as the BRICS improvement Bank, which has already funded 98 projects worth a full of US$33 billion.
Despite the importance of the economical problems facing the BRICS associate States and the association as a whole, the decision to extend the association was, of course, the most crucial provision of the 15th Johannesburg Summit. As it turned out, the discussion on the main subject of the summit was not easy, but consensus was reached.
The summit participants who met at the final press conference were greeted with applause by South Africa president Cyril Ramaphosa. The first thing the president of the summit's organizing committee said was that all the countries that are members of the association adopted by consensus "The final declaration from Johannesburg-2023".
Secondly, the South African leader has read the list of countries that will become full members of BRICS from 1 January 2024. He announced that it was unanimously decided that the "five" would be supplemented by six fresh members from different parts of the planet – Argentina, Egypt, Iran, United arabian Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Ethiopia. Given the fresh members, the full GDP of BRICS will scope 37 percent of the global population and 46 percent of the planet population will live in the association countries. And this is not a limit, given that the current expansion of the organization is only the first phase and then the second stage.
South Africa leader noted: “BRICS is simply a union of equal states that can have different views, but there is simply a common imagination of the future. All this talk, and I am certain there will be quite a few it, about the possible tightening of misunderstandings in BRICS after fresh members join, is “from the wrong” due to the fact that only geopolitical opponents of the association, who possibly first realized the scale of the upcoming changes, are curious in specified disputes.
Indeed, the evaluation of the results of the South Africa Summit varies widely. Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi called the results of the gathering of leaders "positive". Before the summit, it was said that authoritative Delhi was skeptical of plans to grow and intended to argue them, but all this turned out to be rumors. Modi's congratulations to the fresh members of BRICS sounded absolutely sincere. The Prime Minister of India believes that this decision will strengthen his country's bilateral relations with fresh members of the "family", and the BRICS improvement will be an example of successful implementation of a planetary geopolitical task that protects the interests of the countries of the "global South".
By Anthony Rowley, columnist of the oldest Hong Kong paper "South China Morning Post", in the close future BRICS can become the equivalent of G7 and change the order of the world. Moreover, according to his estimates, the most crucial is not even the expansion of BRICS, but the expanding impact of the group's decision on the global economy and the strengthening of its voice under the global Monetary Fund (IMF). The expert notes that the attractiveness of the association as a "world balance force" is unprecedentedly advanced today.
A akin position is taken by the Saudi paper "Provision", noting that "BRICS has challenged unfair and unequal global economical and political systems". paper observers believe that “the extended membership of the association will change the modern order of the planet and full GDP exceeds G7 share. A akin opinion is expressed by ‘Al-Watan Bahrain’ of Bahrain writing that ‘BRICS is gradually expanding its political and economical importance, becoming a worthy competitor of G7’. The Turkish paper "Evrensel" acknowledges the awesome economical performance of BRICS, but notes that "the accession to BRICS, and Turkey would like to do so, is not so easy, especially in the absence of a clear programme for candidates and the reluctance of the association itself to expand".
At the same time, it is expected that planet media, linked to the countries of the collective West, will be negative in their many assessments, claiming that the expansion of the association will not lead to anything positive. "Bloomberg's Publicist" Howard Chua-Eoan even predicts that BRICS will gradually decay. In his opinion, the real opposition to the United States and their allies from BRICS was unsuccessful and besides defeated the dollar. A simple question arises – if everything is so hopeless, why is so much attention given to this event and trying to diminish its meaning?
Returning to the final declaration of the participants of the Johannesburg Summit, which contains 94 points, it should be noted that the leaders of 5 countries have noted 5 systemic factors affecting the improvement of the association, as well as strengthening its competitive advantages in the global relations system:
Firstly, the BRICS countries consider the UN to be a "fundamental stone" of the global system, but there is simply a request for reform, as well as to extend the representation of developing countries in the UN safety Council.
Secondly, there is simply a request to usage alternate payment systems and measures to strengthen macroeconomic coordination to enhance economical cooperation. According to the president of Brazil Luli da Silva, the leaders of the BRICS associate States decided to consider utilizing national currencies as a systemic origin that could reduce the dependence of countries on marketplace fluctuations.
A 3rd origin is strengthening political cooperation within the association against fresh global risks and risks. The BRICS countries called for the strengthening of the non-proliferation mechanics for weapons of mass destruction, and besides called for the reinforcement of the disarmament and non-proliferation mechanisms provided for in the Convention for the Prohibition of Research, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (biological) and Toxic Weapons and its Destruction.
Fourthly, the summit took the view that the expansion of BRICS was an crucial origin in the global impact and consolidation of "non-Western countries".
Fifth, there was a complete unanimity of the country leaders in Russia's approval as president of BRICS in 2024 and the election of the city of Kazan to replace the next 16th summit.
- The BRICS summit held in Johannesburg can be called revolutionary. He outlined a fresh vector for the improvement of a more equal and just architecture of the world, confirming the desire of the "non-Western world" to attain the multipolar order of the world, not in words, but in deeds.
Prof. Aleksander Gusiev
photo public domain
for: interaffairs.ru
