BRICS Meet is a game changer

The recently concluded BRICS meeting in the Russian city of Kazan is a game changer in the field of international relations. It will have far-reaching consequences for international political, security and financial arrangements and will bring about a paradigm shift in the existing unipolar world led by America. It will shift the global focus on the BRICS from international agreements led by the US on behalf of the UN and its financial instruments such as the World Bank and the IMF. This would happen for two reasons. First, the world is fed up with the domineering attitude of the US-led West, which treats the rest of the world with bitter contempt and humiliation without offering the benefits of being under a Don. The regime of sanctions imposed on nations whose behavior does not suit their interests is literally disgusting, without a veil of diplomatic decorum and decency. Instead of helping to maintain peace in the world, the West led by the US is guilty of repeatedly disturbing them according to their interests. Other nations are so weak that they don’t have the courage to stand up to their tyranny in the name of democracy, human rights, women’s rights, gender equality and blah blah blah. The USSR and its allies fought for their rights successfully, but the Non-Aligned Nations were left to fend for themselves. Russia became weak after the disintegration of the USSR and US-led NATO had a field day. They had no justification for further expanding and strengthening NATO. Second, BRICS is not a pride of lions led by the most powerful male lion, as is the case with US-led NATO. It is a multipolar organization with a positive space for weaker nations that have been left behind in the modern race of development. It is guided by the spirit of the general good of its members. Third, it is not a power block meant to oppose anyone. It is simply a bulwark against the oppression and exploitation of the US-led West.

America and its allies are in a state of shock and disbelief as they never expected India, China and Russia to be on the same platform. The icing on the cake is the presence of Brazil, South Africa, Egypt, Iran, Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates and a host of other nations waiting to join BRICS. India and China on the same page is a big blow to the US’s chances of ever fighting China. The credit goes to the master politician and diplomat Vladimir Putin who made Russia rise like a sphinx. Biden wanted to isolate Russia by imposing a series of sanctions, but Putin managed a surprise rapprochement between India and China on the sidelines of the BRICS meeting. The US feared that India and China would come together and that Russia would become a powerful player, but it did not expect what happened in Kazan. China is a powerful country and has shown pragmatic intelligence while coming to terms with India. It is not in the interest of India and China to have a volatile border. It is a long and difficult process, but it is a positive development in the right direction. Both nations would be wise to act according to ground realities.

America will have to recalibrate its diplomacy to fight against China, India and Russia in the changing world order. China has been America’s main opponent, but the rise of Russia under Putin’s obsequious leadership and the emergence of a defiant India is completely off the agenda for American policymakers. In 2008, Michael Mandelbaum and Thomas L. Friedman in their famous book, “What Went Wrong With the US” rightly explained the decline of America and the rise of China. However, they failed to take note of Russia and India.

The BRICS account for forty percent of the global population with thirty percent of world GDP. It consumes forty-four percent of the world’s crude oil production. It envisages a multi-currency trade that could eventually lead to the BRICS currency. The de-dollarization process has begun. However, it will take some time as MBS is still undecided. He was absent from the BRICS meeting. The day it does, the petrodollar would begin to lose its luster. BRICS founded the New Development Bank to provide soft loans to its members for infrastructure development. An Alternative Reserve Arrangement was entered into to provide loans in the form of bailouts to its members in the event of default. These financial institutions will break the hegemony and dictatorship of financial institutions like the Word Bank and the IMF for the countries of the third world, also called the global south.

BRICS is a positive development for a proper balancing of powers and their associated financial institutions.

The writer is a renowned academic and political commentator. The opinions expressed in the article are personal