The sixteenth edition of the annual BRICS Summit, held in the Russian city of Kazan, concluded on Thursday, 24 October 2024.
BRICS is an international conglomeration of some of the world’s largest developing countries. It started as a sideline meeting at the 2006 edition of the annual UN General Assembly between Brazil, Russia, India and China. It was officially incorporated as BRICS in 2009 when South Africa joined.
BRICS has since onboarded more developing nations i.e. Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) who were allowed to join the summit’s proceedings for the first time.
The conclusion of the summit was met with mixed reactions from the participating countries and the larger international community at large.
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The BRICS 2024 Summit: A Social Op
Critics have been quick to label this year’s edition of the BRICS summit as an attempt at showboating, particularly by the host, Russia. Russia has been facing increased isolation stemming from its invasion of Ukraine in 2022; especially from Western counterparts whom it relies on for International Trade.
Russia has therefore been keen on creating its sphere of influence, by building close alliances with other powerful developing countries. Russia has especially drawn closer to China with whom it still maintains a strong relationship. China is currently Russia’s largest trading partner.
Vladimir Putin, the Russian President, has been on a mission to decampaign the influence of the United States and the West in the developing world. Russia has been backing on the growing anti-western and anti-American stance in these regions. The Russian military has, for example, established more military outposts in Central and Western Africa. Russia is, in fact, the chief supplier of arms and weapon systems to Africa.
Trade between African countries and Russia has increased by 35% in the first half of 2023 despite the international trade sanctions imposed on Russia.
All in all, Putin wishes to utilize BRICS as a model on which to build an international system of multilateralism in the developing world that rivals the West. However, that is an aspiration which is still quite distant given the current set of circumstances.
The 2024 Edition of the BRICS Summit was more of Russia proving to the West that it still has the attention of the developing world. As observations from the Kremlin would have one believe, the Summit was a seeming success. It had more participants and the developing world is more interested than ever in cooperating with Russia despite attempts from the West to isolate it.
Beyond the surface, however, there isn’t much in the form of multilateralism happening during the BRICS Summit. The Summit felt more like a social club gathering of the world’s most powerful developing world meeting to iron out differences and collaborations between themselves.
A key highlight of the BRICS Summit was the sidelines meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. India and China have had strained relations over the years arising from historical territorial disputes of the Himalayan border shared between the two countries. The dispute culminated in a deadly conflict between the armies of the two countries guarding the border back in 2020.
Nonetheless, the two leaders agreed to work to de-escalate the border tensions by moving their respective troops away from the disputed border points.
It will take much more effort to build BRICS into a robust political, military, and economic alliance with global reach. At the moment, it cannot be perceived as a threat to NATO, the European Union, or any of Bretton Woods’ financial systems.
Divulging Interests
The ineffectiveness of BRICS as a powerful player in the international sphere of influence partly boils down to the divulging interests between its members.
Despite Russia’s growing dissent from the West, many of her allies are still keen on maintaining strong ties with it. India and China, two of the most powerful nations in BRICS, favour a more interventionist and collaborative approach.
Therefore, despite the collective disillusionment with the United States and her European allies, each of the BRICS members is keen on handling the situation differently. Russia favours an openly aggressive approach, which leaves it quite isolated even within BRICS.
For example, there have been unending calls to deescalate and eventually end the war in Ukraine from both India and China. Xi Jinping has offered to facilitate the negotiations and dialogue process if both parties in the war agree to oblige. India has also been maintaining close ties with Ukraine even as Modi and Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, held bilateral meetings twice between August and September of this year.
However, Russia still believes that it retains the upper hand in Ukraine and is committed to engaging in its military operations. Given the unwillingness by its closest allies India and China to support Russia’s military operations, it has chosen to seek much-needed support elsewhere.
Russia recently entered a military defence pact with North Korea, which has seen the deployment of North Korean troops to Ukraine. The move has caused rising concerns from Russia’s allies and the West alike.
All in all, Russia’s commitment towards an aggressive approach to achieving its policy goals leaves it more isolated in the global community. Expect it to draw closer to pariah states such as North Korea and Iran as it continues to go against the cooperative state of affairs established by the Westernized global system.
Once bitten, twice shy. India and China have been reading the writing on the wall, learning from the difficulties Russia has witnessed, and realizing that global isolation would be quite detrimental for them. Hence then, they would rather find a way to oppose the West without angering it so much that they are cast out from the international community.
Russia hopes that BRICS can be a starting point for building an anti-western global system. Everyone else seems preoccupied with staying out of the West’s bad books.
Must be the Money
Russia’s money problems were on show all throughout the summit. The country has been short on foreign currencies, especially the US Dollar and the Euro, given its isolation from international trade.
The Russian ruble has surprisingly maintained a strong show against the dollar, and the Russian economy has remained resilient despite predictions that it would crumble due to the pressure of international sanctions.
However, a strong domestic currency is not equal to a strong economy. Russia’s economy still needs access to international markets to remain viable.
Having foreign currency reserves, particularly in dollars, helps to maintain the stability of the domestic currency. In the long term, therefore, Russia figures that it will need access to dollar reserves if its economy is to remain afloat.
For this reason, therefore, delegates visiting Russia for the Summit were asked to bring dollars in cash to be exchanged for Russian Rubles. Going cashless wasn’t an option either since major card companies i.e. Mastercard and Visa have suspended operations in the country since 2022.
Consequently, an interesting scenario played out at the summit where Russia and her allies have continued to call for the reformation of the Global Financial System and a commitment towards dethroning the US Dollar as the default global currency. On the other hand, Russia is seemingly desperate for an injection of dollars into its economy to help keep it alive.
Transforming BRICS into a robust system that rivals the current financial system takes longer than is anticipated. Furthermore, the incentive for the outright dissolution of the current global financial system is unfounded as most if the countries under BRICS have benefitted quite a lot from it.
Is the Western system flawed? Absolutely! However, it takes a lot more effort and investment to build another one to rival it from scratch as opposed to improving what already exists.
Read More: Why Nuclear Weapons Play an Important Role in Shaping International Relations.
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