The BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) summit begins this Tuesday in Johannesburg focused on the opening of the bloc of emerging countries to new members, as well as ways to extend its political and economic influence globally.
The summit will start with an economic forum attended by the bloc’s leaders and which will take place at the Sandton Convention Center, financial district of the South African city and heavily guarded by the Police with a large deployment of agents in the area.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa will receive his Chinese and Brazilian counterparts, Xi Jinping and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, and the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, represent their respective countries in this meeting that will last until Thursday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is the subject of an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court for the war in Ukraine, will participate in the meeting via videoconference.
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If Putin had set foot in Johannesburg, South Africa, as a member state of the ICC, was bound to arrest him.
Before the start of the summit, Xi highlighted in the capital Pretoria “the historic new starting point” in China-South Africa relations, one of the main powers of the African continent.
The summit will start with an economic forum.
Ramaphosa, who referred to the Chinese president as “a true friend”, assured that both countries are “united in our common goal and in our search for a better and more equal world.”
The 15th Brics Summit comes at a time of division on the international scene, which has been amplified by the Russian invasion of the Ukraine. South Africa, China and India have not condemned Russia’s offensive, and Brazil has refused to send weapons to Ukraine or impose sanctions on Moscow.
Ramaphosa insisted on Sunday on his non-alignment policy, saying that South Africa “will not allow itself to be drawn into a competition between world powers.”
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In an empty park, near the conference center where the summit is taking place, a few protesters waved Ukrainian flags and they displayed banners against the Russian government, calling for “Lavrov, come back to your house.”
“We are here to send a message to the Brics and the guests at the summit to demand the withdrawal of Russian military forces from Ukraine,” said Lesya Karpenko, 41, a member of a Ukrainian association in South Africa.
![protests against Russia](https://www.eltiempo.com/files/article_content_new/uploads/2023/08/22/64e4ae78aef6b.jpeg)
Protest against Russia in the middle of the BRICS Summit in Johannesburg.
Countries will discuss expansion of the Brics
The block, born in 2009, currently represents 23 percent of world GDP, 42 percent of the population and more than 16 percent of global trade.
Despite the disparity of its members, The Brics agree on the demand for a more inclusive global political and economic balanceparticularly against the United States and the European Union.
The group seeks to extend its influence and considers opening up to new members.
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At least 40 countries have expressed their desire to join the club, including Argentina, Iran, Bangladesh or Saudi Arabia, and 23 of them have already formally applied for membership.
But the five current members, geographically distant and with economies of uneven growth, they have “divergent opinions about the countries that should enter the bloc and the conditions” of access, explains Jannie Rossouw, from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.
![Lula](https://www.eltiempo.com/files/article_content_new/uploads/2023/08/22/64e4af378dfbd.jpeg)
The Brazilian president, upon his arrival in South Africa for the Brics summit.
South Africa has been working this year on a list of “guidelines” for the entry of new members, its Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor said on Sunday.
The question of expansion divides India and China above all, the two strongest economies in the bloc. Beijing wants to extend its influence, while New Delhi is wary of its regional rival’s intentions.
“In the long term, the China-India rivalry is probably the biggest challenge facing the Brics,” Rossouw said.
In addition, the decision-making process within the bloc, which requires consensus, constitutes a “major hurdle” on the question of possible expansion, stresses Jakkie Cilliers of the Pretoria Institute for Security Studies.
The China-India rivalry is probably the biggest challenge facing the Brics
The group is also expected to tackle the “de-dollarization” of their economies, that is, the use of local currencies to trade to the detriment of the dollar, a position supported by the New Development Bank (NBD), established by the Brics in 2015.
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The dollar has gained ground against emerging market currencies since Russia invaded Ukraine and the US Federal Reserve began raising interest rates to combat inflation in early 2022, a move that made dollar-denominated debt more expensive for those countries.
The creation of a common currency for the Brics does not seem to be on the Johannesburg agenda, an initiative that Lula enthusiastically defends, according to the South African organizers.
On Thursday, the closing day of the summit, the BRICS Friends Leaders’ Dialogue will take place, in which the bloc’s leaders will exchange ideas with their counterparts from other countries.
South Africa invited 67 leaders from the Global South to the meeting, including the presidents of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel, and Bolivia, Luis Arce.
Twenty dignitaries from international organizations are also invited, such as the UN Secretary General, António Guterres, and the Chairman of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat.
*With AFP and EFE
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