Opinion | Amid BRICS members' recruitment efforts: Saudi Arabia maybe next
By Augustus K. Yeung
INTRODUCTION
Around 1,200 delegates from the five BRICS nations and dozens of other developing countries are in Johannesburg, South Africa's biggest city and more than 40 heads of states, expected to take part in some of the 3-day summit meetings.
China and Russia look to advance agendas at summit of developing counties in Johannesburg. Both look to gain more political and economic ground in the developing world at this summit this week, when an expected joint dose of anti-West grumbling from them may take on a sharper edge with a formal move to bring Saudi Arabia closer.
Leaders from the economic bloc of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa are holding a summit in Johannesburg's financial district of Sandton, with President Xi Jinping's attendance underlining the diplomatic capital; China has invested in the bloc over the last decade.
Russian President Vladmir Putin appeared on a video link as his travel to South Africa was complicated by an International Criminal Court arrest warrant against him over the war in Ukraine.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and South Africa President Cyril Ramaphosa were all at the summit to be joined later by the Chinese president.
Putin Denounces Sanctions on Russia from a Distance
Putin's 17-minute speech was recorded in advance centered on the war in Ukraine and Russia's relationship with the West. He said a wartime deal to facilitate Ukraine grain shipments that is critical for the world's food supply would not resume until his conditions – the easing of restrictions on Russian food and agricultural products – are met.
The West's attempts to punish and isolate Russia financially for sending troops into Ukraine are an "illegitimate sanctions practice and illegal freezing of assets of sovereign states, which essentially amounts to them trampling upon all the basic norms and rule of free trade," Putin asserted.
Moscow pulled out of the Black Sea Grain Initiative in July and stepped-up drone and missile attacks on the city of Odesa in southern Ukraine, home to one of the ports the controlled passage agreement covered.
Initiative was credited with helping reduce soaring prices of wheat, vegetable old and other global food commodities. Putin maintained that even with Russians exports of grain and fertilizers being "deliberately obstructed," his country has "the capacity to replace Ukraine in grain, both commercially and in free aid to needy countries."
"With these facts in mind, since July 18 we have refused to extend the so-called deal," Putin said. "We will be ready to get back to it, but only if all the obligations to the Russian side are truly fulfilled."
What's on the Agenda in Johannesburg amid China's Push?
Saudi Arabia is one of more than 20 countries to have formally applied to join BRICS in another possible expansion, South African officials say. Any move toward the inclusion of the world's second-biggest oil production in an economic bloc with Russia and China would clearly draw attention from the United States and its allies in an extra-frosty geopolitical climate, and amid a recent move in the Persian Gulf.
"If Saudi Arabia were to enter BRICS, it will bring extraordinary importance to this grouping," said Talmiz Ahmad, India's former ambassador to Saudi Arabia.
Evan an agreement on the principle of expanding BRICS, which already consists of a large chunk of the developing world's biggest economies, is a moral victory of the Russian and Chinese vision for the bloc as a counterbalance to the G-7, analysts say.
Both favor adding more countries to bolster a kind of coalition amid China's economic friction with the U.S. and Russia's standoff with the West in Ukraine.
Nations ranging from Argentina to Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Indonesia and United Arab Emirates have all formally applied to join alongside the Saudis and are also possible new members.
If several are brought in, "then you end up with a bigger economic bloc, and from that a sense of power," said Prof. Alex Habiyaremye of the College of Business and Economics at the University of Johannesburg.
While Brazil, India and South Africa are less keen on expansion and seeing their influence diluted in what's currently an exclusive developing world club, there is momentum for it. Nothing has been decided, though, and the five countries must first agree on the criteria new members need to meet. That's on the agenda in Johannesburg amid Beijing's push. (Source: MDT/AP)
CONCLUSION
"BRICS expansion has become the top trending issue at the moment," said Chen Xiaodong, Chinese ambassador to South Africa. "Expansion is key to enhancing BRICS mechanism's vitality. I believe that this year's summit will witness a new and solid step on this front.
That is a sentiment that Russia and China are more than happy to lean into. Leaders or representatives of dozens more developing countries are set to attend the sideline meetings to give Xi and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who is representing Putin, a sizable audience.
One specific policy point with more direct implications will be discussed and possibly decided on – the proposed expansion of the BRICS bloc, which was formed in 2009 by the emerging market countries of Brazil, Russia, India and China, and added South Africa the following year.
Note: The five BRICS countries are already home to 40% of the world's population and responsible for more than 30% of global economic output – and more than 20 nations have applied to join – including Saudi Arabia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates, according to South African officials.
While summit host South Africa has pushed back at characterizations that BRICS is taking more of an anti-West turn under Russia and Chinese influence, it's clearly a forum for growing discontent in the developing world with global institutions.
That unhappiness has been directed at bodies seen as Washington and its Western-led institutions, including the U.N., the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, which many countries in the Global South feel do not serve their interests.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of DotDotNews.
To contact the writer, please direct email: AugustusKYeung@ymail.com
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