Anti-Western or non-Western? Nuanced geopolitics of BRICS – Diplomat

The first BRICS+ summit after the group’s enlargement in January 2024 allowed Russian host Vladimir Putin to style himself as a non-isolated world leader, but the lack of substantive progress on key issues highlights divergences between the nine member states’ ambitions for the organization rather than their unity. Although BRICS should be taken seriously as a developing economic organization encompassing many countries in the Global South, it would be a mistake to interpret it as one of the poles of bilateral geopolitical competition between China, Russia and the West.

The Kazan summit, held on October 22-24, received significant international attention, partly due to Putin’s portrayal of it as one of the “foreign policy events on the largest scale in history” in Russia and a truly impressive list of participants. In addition to the presence at the highest level of eight of the nine full member states (Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates; Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva attended the online meeting due to a recent head injury) over 20 other countries were represented, including many heads of state. Notable guests included Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and United States Secretary General Antonio Guterres.

As is often the case with multilateral summits, several leaders also met bilaterally on the sidelines of the summit, as did Putin 17 bilateral meetings on its agenda. The meeting between was particularly noteworthy Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday, which was the first confrontation between the two leaders in five years, facilitated by a a landmark agreement regarding the Sino-Indian border dispute a day before the start of the summit.

Many Western observers see BRICS as an increasingly anti-Western organization, noting that the summit was held in warmongering Russia while the group accepted Iran as a full member in January 2024 and its development comes against the backdrop of China’s geopolitical contest with Russia. . It is true that the BRICS countries share a clear ambition to reduce Western dominance in global governance and strengthen the international influence of Global South countries. Creation of “a more just and democratic world order” was the main concern emphasized by all members, old and new.

BRICS as a group also criticizes the use of sanctions by Western countries and wants to increase the use of local currencies in financial transactions of member states to reduce their dependence on the US dollar.

However, reading such measures as an organization-wide declaration of clear anti-Western sentiments is a gross oversimplification. While this is probably true for some – primarily Russia, Iran and to a lesser extent China – other member states do not want to be seen as part of the anti-Western club. In fact, members such as India, Brazil and the United Arab Emirates continue to work closely with Western partners, as evidenced, among others, by India’s participation in the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue with Australia, Japan and the United States. These countries regularly oppose initiatives that are not consistent with their own foreign policy agendas.

For example, earlier this month, a meeting of BRICS finance ministers was held in Russia under severe sanctions, during which Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov called for an alternative to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), as well as BRICS rating agency, reinsurance company and commodity exchange. However, most of the BRICS finance ministers and central bank heads did not even bother to attend the meeting and instead only sent junior officials.

This week declaration from the summit he similarly called for reforming the Bretton Woods institutions rather than creating full-scale alternatives. Furthermore, Member States agreed “to discuss and study the possibility of creating an independent cross-border clearing and depository infrastructure, BRICS Clear, an initiative aimed at complementing the existing financial market infrastructure, as well as independent reinsurance capabilities of BRICS, including the BRICS (Re)Insurance Companywith participation on a voluntary basis” (emphasis added) – probably a lukewarm reaction to Russia’s initiatives.

Even when it comes to limiting the primacy of the dollar in international trade – which is generally supported by most BRICS member states – there are many differences in how this can be done. The expected increase in the exchange rate of the Chinese yuan as an alternative to the dollar does not please India and other countries that are its members.

The BRICS group has seen an increase in the number of candidate countries and its economic size is impressive. Its member countries respond 29 percent of world GDP AND 40 percent of oil production. But there is no need to fear the development of a large geopolitical anti-Western bloc. Their interests are far too diverse and encompass too many countries that value this organization only as a non-Western group, not an anti-Western one.

With this distinction in mind, Europe should focus on taking seriously the criticism that unites all BRICS+ countries, both “non-Western” and “anti-Western”, which includes the unfair domination of Western countries in key international institutions that no longer reflects the contemporary realities of international power. But let’s not over-interpret the alleged “threat” from this loose platform.

Given the attractiveness of BRICS as an alternative to Western-led institutions, there is a clear need for European countries to reassess their engagement strategies with countries in the Global South. Maintaining and cultivating relations with individual BRICS countries – as German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is currently doing during his visit to New Delhi on the occasion 7th Intergovernmental Consultations Germany-India – it is essential that BRICS+ does not become a truly anti-Western pole.