Brics has 19 countries in line to join, says Bloomberg – 04/25/2023 – Nelson de Sá

Echoed by Caixin and others, Bloomberg reports that “Brics receives membership bids from 19 nations ahead of summit” (above) in August in South Africa. The five leaders will participate, including Vladimir Putin, according to the South African IOL. To do so, the country must leave the ICC (International Criminal Court).

In a week’s time, in a preparatory meeting for the summit, the bloc’s chancellors will meet in Cape Town to settle “the expansion of the Brics and the modalities of how this will happen”, according to the South African representative.

The list of possible 19, still not fully revealed, ranges from Indonesia to Egypt and Argentina, with a large presence of members of OPEC, the oil cartel: Saudi Arabia, Iran, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Algeria, perhaps one or two more. .

Another group that brings together large emerging countries, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), has a meeting of defense ministers this week in New Delhi. The Hindu, South China Morning Post and others note the parallel meeting of Indian and Chinese representatives.

Previous conversations “promise to speed up the resolution [das disputas de fronteira] to allow relations to move forward.” It will be the first visit to India by Chinese General Li Shangfu, who was previously in Moscow, a historic military ally of New Delhi — and also part of the SCO.

In the background, at the top of Bloomberg, “BlackRock says that emerging countries have an advantage over the rest of the world”. The investment firm released a note “even more optimistic about emerging markets, where central bankers are moving much faster” than in the West to reverse interest rates.

HYPOCRITES

On the cover of the US magazine Foreign Affairs, “The non-aligned world”, about “The West, the rest and the new global disorder” (above).

It says that “it was meant to be the ‘free world’ united” and it was, with the US and its allies. “But elsewhere it’s a different story. It makes clear how differently the rest of the world sees not just the war but the broader global horizon.”

The opening essay is by Matias Spektor, from FGV, addressing “why countries of the Global South refuse to take sides in war, from India to Indonesia, from Brazil to Turkey, from Nigeria to South Africa”.

Among other motivations, “the strategy is informed by these countries’ history with the great powers and their conviction that the US, in particular, has been hypocritical in dealing with the developing world.”

FROM UKRAINE TO TAIWAN

Per Politico and the New York Times, anonymous officials in Washington warn that “a failed counter-offensive could lead to reduced Western support in Ukraine”. That “big gains are not guaranteed nor are they necessarily likely”. That, “behind closed doors, the Biden administration cares.”

It fell to Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, to express clearly:

“If Ukraine doesn’t make a dramatic gain, the question inevitably arises whether it’s time to negotiate. It’s expensive, we’re running out of ammunition, we have other contingencies around the world to prepare for.”

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