BRICS Summit handed Putin a PR victory

When, back in 2006, a group of emerging economies — Brazil, Russia, India and China — formed BRIC, becoming BRICS when South Africa joined in 2010, it was aimed at countering the dominance of the US and its Western allies in the world economy to their detriment. They joined forces to demand more balance, equity, prosperity and justice for their countries.

But by holding its annual summit in the Russian city of Kazan last month, especially as it was hosted by President Vladimir Putin, for whom the International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for alleged war crimes in Ukraine, this fast-expanding forum dented its reputation and undermined its just causes and objectives.

If the BRICS grouping, which is not a formal one, did not exist, it would be necessary to invent it. This is because the dominance of the West, first and foremost the US, over the world economy continues to perpetuate inequalities and injustices that should have been terminated with the end of the era of imperialism and colonialism.

There is strength in the informality of this grouping, as it is able to focus on enhancing its core mission of enabling emerging non-Western economies to coordinate their economic and diplomatic efforts around a shared goal without too much unnecessary bureaucracy. Building an alternative to Western dominance, both practically and perceptually, has been an ongoing act of removing at least some of the chains imposed by the West’s domination of major multilateral institutions such as the World Bank, the G7 and the International Monetary Fund.

The dominance of the West over the world economy continues to perpetuate inequalities and injustices

Yossi Mekelberg

It would be difficult to contest the need for what BRICS represents and its welcome expansion, with Ethiopia, Egypt, Iran and the UAE joining this year. While the expanded group has a combined population of about 3.5 billion, or 45 percent of the world’s inhabitants, its members’ combined economies are worth about $28.5 trillion, which amounts to only about 28 percent of the global economy — a small figure for such a population but one that should still be big enough to allow the members to become masters of their own destiny.

However, BRICS was not founded to become a form and forum of defiance for the sake of it.

Deep into its third year, the war in Ukraine is still raging and with no end in sight, despite causing unimaginable suffering to so many innocent people. The Russian invasion in February 2022 was in flagrant contravention of international law due to its violation of the sovereignty of a neighboring country with no justifiable reason and not even a hint of a provocation by Ukraine. On the contrary, it was Russia that, in the eight years leading up to this act of aggression, used its military superiority to illegally annex the Crimea and agitate unrest in eastern Ukraine before invading it.

This brazen behavior has led the US, UK and EU, in addition to Australia, Canada, Japan and others, to impose more than 16,500 sanctions on Russia since February 2022. Moreover, Russia’s money has been targeted and much of its foreign currency reserves frozen, while the interest this yields is now being used to help finance Ukraine’s war efforts.

The only reason there are no UN Security Council resolutions sanctioning Russia is because of Moscow’s privileged position as a permanent member of this exclusive club, a position that bestows on it the power of veto. And this is why the decision by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to attend the BRICS Summit in Kazan was a gross misjudgment that harmed the credibility, or whatever is left of it, of the UN as a body that should be supporting victims of aggression.

At the beginning of the war, it was Guterres who lamented that “our world is facing the biggest global peace and security crisis in recent years — certainly in my tenure as secretary-general.” He went on to warn that, as a result of the Russian invasion, “we face a moment that I sincerely hoped would not come … (as) such a unilateral measure conflicts directly with the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.

”Guterres’ support of BRICS is crucial, as this forum represents the values on which the UN was established by striving for the prosperity and safety of all. Nevertheless, by attending this summit, he has let himself down, along with the organization he heads and the principles of the UN Charter.

Guterres’ attendance was a gross misjudgment that harmed the credibility, or whatever is left of it, of the UN

Yossi Mekelberg

Although this year was due to be that of Russia’s presidency of BRICS, its members could have easily chosen another location to gather for their summit. It was, then, no surprise that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky snubbed the UN secretary-general’s request to visit Kyiv after the BRICS Summit, despite Guterres calling for a “just peace” in Ukraine during his visit to Kazan. Guterres also reiterated his position to Putin that Russia’s invasion was in “violation of the United Nations Charter and international law.” Above all else, it was the optics of his visit that mattered and not his statement of the obvious.

Sadly, the location of the summit distracted from the crucial issues discussed, among them the member states’ efforts to establish an alternative payment system that aims to reduce reliance on the US dollar in international trade and boost their economic autonomy. Such a measure is controversial but reflects their genuine frustration.

Alas, for Putin, it was merely an opportunity to gain some attention for his defiance of the West and announcement of a “BRICS currency,” although one does not exist, and thereby distract from the price paid by emerging economies for the financial markets’ reliance on the US dollar. BRICS, or BRICS+ as it is now, is not going to introduce a single currency, but it is likely to increase efforts to create a payment system that guards against the negative impact of the dollar. For that, it needs it to be free from the ulterior motives of any of its leaders.

These developments and frustrations are also a warning to the US and the rest of the West that there is a need to engage with emerging economies as respected partners and to play a positive and constructive role in their development, not just see them as a playground to serve their own economies and make themselves even richer. Let us hope that the next BRICS Summit, scheduled to take place in Brazil in 2025, will be able to focus on such issues and not on who hosts it.

• Yossi Mekelberg is a professor of international relations and an associate fellow of the MENA Program at Chatham House. X: @YMekelberg