My Take | Why so many nations suddenly want to become part of Brics
- The weaponised dollar hangs over many developing countries like the sword of Damocles. If nothing else, Brics+ offers them an escape route
Beijing has been uncorking champagne with the success of the Brics summit in Johannesburg. But it should thank Washington for it.
Not only did the summit attract worldwide attention, the admission of new member states and the dozens of others queuing to join have suddenly given enormous clout to the grouping of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
Their rush to join the Brics nations, though, has less to do with the club’s intrinsic merits and much to do with their need to escape from the constant hegemonic threat of the United States.
Because of Washington’s extraterritorial overreach, more developing countries have little choice but to find alternative means to conduct business and trade to avoid being arbitrarily targeted by the US.
The summit, with its focus on de-dollarisation, promotion of local currencies for global trade and finance, and the admission of new members, has mostly accorded with Beijing’s agenda.
To placate India and Brazil, the gathering has not turned out to be overtly anti-Western or anti-G7 as Beijing and Moscow might have hoped. But Brics+ – with Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates invited to join – has become a viable competitor to the Bretton Woods legacy financial institutions of the West that have long dominated the global economy.