JOHANNESBURG—China, Russia, and South Africa have won a battle to expand the BRICS bloc of emerging market economies, but their plan to establish a gold-backed currency to rival the United States dollar has stalled.
Current BRICS members are Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, and they held their 15th annual summit in Johannesburg from Aug. 22–Aug. 24.
Beijing, Moscow, and Pretoria want BRICS to “counterbalance” the West as part of a “New World Order.”
On Aug. 24, BRICS leaders announced that six new members, including Iran, would join the bloc in January.
The other states are Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.
“The inclusion of the Islamic dictatorship of Iran, which has plans to be a nuclear power, is obviously showing the finger to the United States and its allies,” said Sanusha Naidoo, an independent foreign policy analyst based in Johannesburg.
“That, together with the impending membership of the major oil exporter Saudi Arabia and the extremely wealthy UAE, where much of the world’s business is now conducted, is a powerful message signalling that BRICS fully intends to oppose the West economically, politically and perhaps even militarily,” she told The Epoch Times.
Current BRICS countries say groupings such as the G7, G20, United Nations, International Monetary Fund and World Bank are “pro-West” and do not represent the interests of the Global South.
Welcoming the new members, China’s leader Xi Jinping, called the BRICS expansion “historic.”
“It shows the determination of BRICS countries for unity and cooperation with the broader developing countries.
“It meets the expectations of the international community and the common interests of emerging market countries and developing countries.
“It will bring new vigor to the BRICS cooperation mechanism, and further strengthen the force for world peace and development,” Mr. Xi said.
Brazil’s leader, Lula da Silva, said with the addition of the six new members BRICS would represent 46 percent of the global population and comprise 37 percent of the world GDP.
A South African official at the summit told The Epoch Times the push for expansion was driven “overwhelmingly” by China, supported “strongly” by Russia and South Africa.
He said India and Brazil were “hesitant” to add “some” of the prospective new members, and were concerned that Beijing and Moscow wanted to use BRICS to “fight” the United States and its allies.
But, he added, President Da Silva and India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, eventually agreed to expansion, after receiving assurances that a bigger BRICS would “develop poorer nations,” rather than being “weaponized.”
South African political analyst, Moeletsi Mbeki, said the “tension” between China and India, in particular, was “clear” at the summit.
“India has become closer to the Western powers, I think mainly as a result of its border dispute with China. So it’s driving India into the arms of the West,” he told The Epoch Times.
“For the BRICS group, this is a problem. But for India, given the nature of the threat, it’s a national security crisis. China’s a much bigger military power than India, so India’s turning to Western countries for military equipment—mainly the United States and France.”
This had also sparked tension between New Delhi and Moscow, said Mr. Mbeki.
“Russia has been arming India for decades. But now the Kremlin is losing out on Indian arms contracts.
“India says it’s non-aligned in the war in Ukraine, but lately it has become more overt in its criticism of [Russian President] Vladimir Putin’s invasion and unwillingness to negotiate towards peace.
“So India appears to be backing off from its previously cordial relationship with Russia.”
Both India and China claim thousands of miles of land in the Himalayas, on the border of the world’s two most-populated countries. There have been several deadly clashes in recent years between their troops.
He and Mr. Modi released a joint statement that was received very negatively in Beijing.
It set out plans for India to manufacture semiconductors, the components essential to most modern-day electronic devices.
President Biden and Mr. Modi announced the Semiconductor Supply Chain and Innovation Partnership between Washington and New Delhi, “as a significant step in the coordination of our countries’ semiconductor incentive programs.”
Their statement continued: “This will promote commercial opportunities, research, talent, and skill development.
“The leaders welcomed an announcement by Micron Technology, to invest up to $825 million to build a new semiconductor assembly and test facility in India with support from the Indian government.
“The combined investment valued at $2.75 billion would create up to 5,000 new direct and 15,000 community job opportunities in the next five years.”
President Biden and Mr. Modi also announced agreements to enable greater transfer of U.S. military technology to India, to strengthen “defense industrial cooperation,” and to co-produce advanced defense systems.
They announced a “trailblazing initiative” to manufacture F-414 fighter jet engines in India, saying they had committed their governments “to working collaboratively and expeditiously to support the advancement of this unprecedented co-production and technology transfer proposal.”
Mr. Mbeki said China was also “angered” by India’s membership—along with Australia, Japan and the United States—of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue designed to safeguard the Indo-Pacific region “from Chinese aggression.”
Former Indian ambassador to China, Ashok Kantha, told The Epoch Times that defense had emerged as “a very major area” in India-U.S. relations.
“They have various intelligence-sharing agreements, and there have recently been some very significant joint military exercises. There was one that particularly infuriated the Chinese government that occurred in November in the disputed border area,” he said.
On Aug. 23, India became only the fourth country in the world to land a spacecraft on the moon, and the first to do so in the lunar south pole region.
“For China, this moon landing is just further proof that India is growing into an Asian superpower, whereas before Beijing was the only bully on the block,” said Ms. Naidoo.
During Mr. Modi’s visit to the White House, he and President Biden pledged that India and the United States would “set a course to reach new frontiers across all sectors of space cooperation.”
Part of their joint statement read: “The leaders applauded our growing cooperation on earth and space science, and space technologies. They welcomed the decision of NASA and ISRO to develop a strategic framework for human spaceflight cooperation by the end of 2023.”
During talks with President Biden, Mr. Modi committed himself to countering any attempts to “subvert” the multilateral system.
“The leaders underscored the need to strengthen and reform the multilateral system so it may better reflect contemporary realities,” said the statement.
“In this context both sides remain committed to a comprehensive U.N. reform agenda, including through expansion in permanent and non-permanent categories of membership of the U.N. Security Council.
“Sharing the view that global governance must be more inclusive and representative, President Biden reiterated U.S. support for India’s permanent membership on a reformed U.N. Security Council.”
In the light of this, said Ms. Naidoo, India might have to explain why it agreed to expand BRICS.
“Washington could regard an expanded BRICS, particularly one that includes Iran, as a threat, as a subversion, of the present multilateral system.”
Harsh Pant, vice president of Foreign Policy at the Observer Research Foundation in the United Kingdom, said “friction” between India on one side, and China, Russia and South Africa on the other, was as a result of disagreements on the future direction of BRICS.
“India has a vision of leading the Global South as more of a responsible player. It wants a bigger seat at the various tables for developing countries, but essentially it wants this to be achieved through cooperation with traditional powers such as the United States.
“China wants to be the undisputed leader of the Global South, but as a kind of disrupter, in total opposition to the West, together with it’s lesser partner, Russia,” Mr. Pant told The Epoch Times.
He said India was “very cautious” of so-called de-dollarization, arguing that it would be irresponsible to rush into creating a gold-backed currency.
“India has more to lose with regard to this currency question,” said Mr. Mbeki. “It’s economy is still rising, while China, even though it’s in a bit of an economic slump at the moment, is well-positioned to take over from the United States as the world’s largest economy.
“India doesn’t want to do anything that causes disruption in the world financial system and a new currency would certainly do that.”
Ms. Naidoo said New Delhi was forced to “walk a thin line” with regard to its relationships with the United States and China.
“My opinion is that Mr. Modi agreed to expansion of BRICS mainly to appease China. He does not want relations with China to get any worse. But at the same time he needs to work with the United States and its allies for various reasons, including security.”
Kantha agreed that “avoidance of serious conflict” with China was a priority for Mr. Modi’s administration.
South African military analyst, Guy Martin, told The Epoch Times that Western military support meant that India was “now the only neighbor that has a chance to stand up to China, and obviously China’s not too pleased about this.”
