Brics: Dilma will be tested against Chinese pragmatism – 03/24/2023 – Market

At the IDB (Inter-American Development Bank), at the end of last year, Washington decided to support the name indicated by the Jair Bolsonaro government, against the will of at least part of Lula’s newly elected government.

At the New Development Bank (NDB), Beijing and the other Brics supported or accepted the exchange, without apparent resistance, as did the chief executive appointed by Bolsonaro.

Now the former President of the Republic Dilma Rousseff will need to pass other tests, along with the market and the financial realism of China and even Russia.

Two weeks ago, S&P Global Ratings released a new rating for the bank, AA+, a level it had already reached before, but now under the impact of the war involving one of its major shareholders, Russia.

The latter tried to safeguard the NDB, according to the risk rating agency: “Russia continues to show strong shareholder support for the NDB, despite the consequences of the invasion of Ukraine. It has kept up to date with all its obligations to the bank “.

The anchor is China. Even as Beijing’s discourse is edging ever closer to the Global South, it is accompanied by clinical pragmatism from its financial authorities.

At the last National People’s Congress, two weeks ago, the Chinese government gained a new prime minister and chancellor, but did not touch the economic team, surprising speculation outside the country.

In a now accelerated process of expansion, the Bank of the Brics balances countries that contribute with capital and others that demand infrastructure.

United Arab Emirates and Bangladesh, for example, two of the four that were added since the creation of the institution, eight years ago, at the Fortaleza summit.

At the moment, there are five others in the queue, whose names have not been revealed, although one of them is very likely to be Indonesia, and now Dilma will have to go beyond political proximity in forwarding the candidacies.

In a hypothetical example, to include Alberto Fernández’s Argentina, without reserves and in search of infrastructure, it would be necessary to bring Singapore, to enter with the resources.

It would also be a case of not further inflaming the Cold War rhetoric, increasingly used by Washington and rejected by Beijing, but that might be asking too much.