Brics becomes “club of dictatorships” and Brazil takes on a supporting role

The Brics – a group formed by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – announced, this Thursday (24th), that they will include six more countries in the bloc starting next year. Argentina, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Ethiopia and Iran were selected to join the bloc. The choice of these nations, according to experts, puts the bloc in clear opposition to the West, in addition to highlighting the power of Xi Jinping, China’s dictator, and Brazil’s loss of protagonism among the Brics.

“I still don’t know what the Brics want beyond a powerful symbolism […] This is obvious with the choice of Iran, for example. It might even make things more difficult,” said economist and creator of the BRICS acronym, Jim O’Neill, in an interview with BBC News Brazil.

Although the selection criteria for the six countries were not clarified with the “Johannesburg Declaration”, the specialists interviewed by the People’s Gazette outline some paths that can justify the decisions. In addition to not being aligned with Western narratives, none of the countries represents a threat to China – which longs for the United States’ place as the world’s greatest power.

Although major emerging powers were interested in joining the Brics, such as Indonesia, the choice seems to have been based on countries with little economic prospects. The reason for this, analysts explain, is that China wants to expand its influence without running the risk of losing its position as the protagonist of the Brics.

For the international trade consultant of BMJ Consultores Associados Tito Sá, the developments of the 15th Summit of the Brics show an absolute strength of China over the other member countries. “It would be very difficult to stop this advance and this Chinese pressure. It is evident that this expansion is led by China, which has become the largest economy in the world”, he analyzes.

“Brazilian diplomacy was very resistant to this expansion and the fear, which still remains, was that Brazil would lose influence within the bloc. And this loss is inevitable. It will happen. A loss of influence by Brazil within the BRICS is expected. , because with the entry of these new countries, power is diluted. This is a fact now and China is the greatest beneficiary of this process”, points out Sá.

Close to China, all countries play a supporting role in the Brics – including Brazil

Since last year, when it was the bloc’s president, China has been pressuring the Brics to accept new members. The group reportedly received nods from 40 interested nations and 22 formal requests to accept new members. Brazil and India opposed the change, but were unable to maintain this position for a long time.

Emerging as the second largest economy in the world, specialists analyze that China used its commercial-economic power to influence the bloc’s decisions. The Asian country is the main economic partner of Brazil and South Africa and has been one of the only ones to support Russia since Moscow decided to invade Ukraine a year ago.

But in addition, Xi Jinping is the main financier of the New Development Bank, the Bank of BRICS. The organization has been responsible for financing dozens of infrastructure works and emergency support to the bloc’s member countries. In this context, opposing the Chinese wishes, for these nations, would be the same as putting their main market at risk.

“We realized, especially when there was a communication noise between Brazil and China, that there was a great effort by our diplomatic corps so that this did not impact our relations with China, as they are deep and very dependent”, points out the BMJ expert.

“Geopolitical choices” are actually the Brics’ response to the West

The geopolitical clash between China and the United States has pressured the Asian country to seek more allies around the world – which justifies Xi Jinping’s pressure to include new members in the group.

Furthermore, Russia has found itself isolated from the world since it invaded Ukraine. Western countries began sanctioning Moscow in order to pressure Vladimir Putin to put an end to the war. The Russian, however, found a partner in China, as Xi Jinping showed support for Putin in the face of the conflict. In response to this support, China gained yet another ally.

Together and with the support of the Brics, the “Johannesburg Declaration”, formulated by the member countries of the bloc, still criticized the West. “We express concern about the use of unilateral coercive measures, which are incompatible with the principles of the Charter of the United Nations and produce negative effects, namely in the developing world”, says one of the points of the document. The target between the lines is the US sanctions package on the Russians.

Still in the declaration, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) found an opportunity to demonstrate against the pressures that the country has been suffering, especially from the European Union, to bar, for example, the agreement between Mercosur and the European bloc. “We oppose trade barriers, including those imposed by certain developed countries under the pretext of combating climate change, and reiterate our commitment to improve coordination on these issues”, says the document.

“We express our concern about any WTO inconsistent discriminatory measure that distorts international trade, risks new trade barriers and shifts the burden of addressing climate change and biodiversity loss to BRICS members and developing countries,” concludes the point 63 of the declaration.

Specialist analyzes which choice of countries was made taking into account the interest of the founding countries of the bloc

For the BMJ expert, the choice of the six countries that will join the Brics next year still goes beyond thinking in common with the West. “I believe that a geographic issue and interests for the founding members also weighed”, points out Tito Sá.

In this context, Brazil would have requested the inclusion of Argentina – the country’s largest economic partner in Latin America; South Africa from Ethiopia; China from the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia; and Russia from Iran. “Iran is one of the biggest allies of the Russians, mainly in this context of isolation from Russia, the country tries to seek more allies”, he analyzes.

Sá also recalls that among the new members, Iran is the one with the most hostile relationship with the United States. “In a first moment, I believe that they tried to make a more or less equal geographical distribution. And another [ponto] is that these countries are not fully aligned with Western rhetoric. I believe that these elements are what unite these 11 countries”, he evaluates.

Brics became a club of dictatorships?

After the announcement of the new countries that will make up the bloc from next year, Tito de Sá explains that the choice of these nations shows that democracy will not be an issue for the Brics. “This is an agenda that cannot be swept under the rug and the entry of these countries demonstrates that the democratic debate will not be an issue for the Brics. I believe this is an attempt to highlight the economic character of the bloc”, he says. .

“What’s at stake here is not the person or the government, it’s the country — the importance of the country. I don’t want to know what ideological thinking the ruler has. I want to know if the country meets the criteria we established to be part of the Brics”, said Lula in a press conference this Thursday (24).

According to the Democracy Ranking of the English newspaper The Economistamong the countries announced to join the Brics, only Argentina is considered a democracy – occupying the 50th place in the ranking, one position above Brazil.

The other nations, all with autocratic regimes, occupy positions beyond the hundredth in a ranking that evaluates 167 countries and territories. In the list, Ethiopia appears in 122nd; Egypt at 131st; the United Arab Emirates in 133rd, Saudi Arabia in 150th and, finally, Iran in 154th place.

Taking into account that Russia and China, the bloc’s founders, are also considered authoritarian countries, the group would have a majority of countries in a dictatorial regime. Moscow and Beijing, respectively, occupy the 146th and 156th positions in the ranking of democracies in the The Economist.