At the Beijing summit an additional 30 billion has been allocated, including for Russia. Xi pushes for technological cooperation and “dedollarization”
Taipei. After building the frame, China and Russia try to paint the picture. The BRICS summit ends with rhetoric, symbolic messages but also forms of concrete support for members, including Moscow. The corpus is the so-called “Beijing Declaration”, a joint document of some 7,300 words covering a wide range of topics: from pandemics to supply chains, from Ukraine to North Korea. The BRICS, under the rhetorical guidance of the master of ceremonies Xi Jinping, present themselves as the protectors of globalization and engines of “responsible development”. Without entering the military and political folds of the war, the document emphasizes support for the negotiations and the role of the G20, which should “remain intact”. Ergo, Putin must be invited to the Bali summit, despite opposing pressure from Washington. Only to the Security Council of United Nations is recognized the power to impose sanctions. Promising an increase in grain exports, Putin explicitly attacks the West as responsible for a new economic crisis. Xi does the same, albeit more implicitly: “Small circles will only isolate themselves, limit others and harm themselves,” said the Chinese president according to whom “protectionism is self-inflicted.”
The Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, has assigned the BRICS the role of “factor of global stability”. Music to the ears of Xi, who stands Beijing as the guarantor of globalization. But, at least as far as the economic sphere is concerned, there is not only rhetoric. China’s Deputy Commerce Minister Wang Shouwen has proposed a free trade agreement between the BRICS. Despite the pandemic, the total volume of trade between the countries in the group reached nearly $ 8.55 trillion in 2021, an increase of 33.4% compared to 2020. China is the center of gravity of this ecosystem. THEBeijing’s bilateral trade with other members reached $ 490.42 billion, up 39.2% over the previous year and higher than the overall growth of Chinese foreign trade over the same period. And China is also the home of the institutions linked to the BRICS, starting with the New Development Bank.
Founded in 2015, the institute (headed by Brazilian Marcos Troyjo as its president) is the financial arm of the platform and has its headquarters in Shanghai. From renewable energy projects in Brazil to railway modernization programs in India and the refurbishment of highways in Russia, by May 2021 the bank had approved more than 80 projects, for a total investment of around 30 billion dollars. From 2022 to 2026, the bank announced an additional $ 30 billion in financial support to member countries. 40% of the capital will be officially allocated to mitigate global warming. The funds will also be available to Russia: a breath of fresh air after sanctions, which the New Development Bank has opposed. Also in China, in the southern city of Xiamen, the New Industrial Revolution Innovation Center entered into operation in December 2020, which aims to facilitate joint projects in the technology and digital sectors.
On the political level, for now, unity remains above all rhetoric. The anti-Western and anti-American line expressed in the various interventions of Xi and Putin has blurred in the joint documents from India, which in the same way tries to prevent the Quad from making too much explicit its role as anti China. Moscow pushes on the accelerator for the creation of alternative platforms and on dedollarization, Beijing stands as the leader of emerging countries by pledging an extra billion dollars to the global development cooperation fund. In anticipation of the G7 and the NATO summit in which the leaders of Japan and South Korea will also take part, Moscow and Beijing are polishing their partnership and trying to be accredited as the center of an expanding galaxy. It is no coincidence that China would like to expand the platform. The president of Argentina, Alberto Fernandez, has announced the desire to join. The BRICS acronym may soon need to be updated.
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