Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday condemned “the abuse” of international economic sanctions, while Russian President Vladimir Putin rebuked the West for fomenting a global crisis. Both leaders asked greater cooperation of the countries of the BRICS, as the group formed by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa is known to “step a new era for world development”.
The 14th BRICS Summit took place in Beijing on Thursday, with the leaders of the group’s nations meeting virtually. The unconditional support between China and Russia seems stronger than ever, and now they call on the other allies to strengthen their relations.
“We must abandon the Cold War mentality and block confrontation and oppose unilateral sanctions, and their abuse,” Xi Jinping said in the opening speech of the summit. “As emerging markets and key developing countries, the BRICS countries must live up to our responsibility.”
Russia is not alone
The appointment also marks Putin’s first appearance in an international forum since the invasion of Ukraine began in February this year. China has not condemned the invasion, and at the summit maintained its commitment to a peaceful resolution of the conflict through dialogue between Kyiv and Moscow.
“Only on the basis of honest and mutually beneficial cooperation can we seek solutions to the crisis situation that has developed in the world economy. due to the thoughtless and selfish actions of individual States”, Putin said.
Putin accused the West of “using financial mechanisms” to “pass its own macroeconomic policy mistakes on to the whole world.” The truth is that, despite sanctions and pressure, Russia is not alone. Putin has stressed that he sees in the BRICS countries new market opportunities in the face of repression from the United States and Europe. Although the group was born in 2009 as an alliance between what were then called emerging economies, now the five nations together represent around a quarter of world GDP.
Alliance against the West
The BRICS nations have gone to great lengths to counter the economic sanctions that the West has imposed on the Kremlin. According to the Russian president, trade between Russia and the BRICS increased by 38% and reached 45 billion dollars in the first quarter of 2022. As allies, China and India have increased their share of buying Russian oil.
Putin has claimed that heRelations with China are the best in its history and touts a strategic partnership with China aimed at countering US influence.
In a call last week between Xi Jinping and Putin, the Chinese leader assured his Russian counterpart that Beijing will support Moscow’s core interests in “sovereignty and security.”
the chinese giant
The host country is the most powerful of the group economically And in the current complex geopolitical context, the 2022 summit offers Beijing a timely platform to promote its vision of how international relations should be built. With the war in Europe and the growing tensions between the Asian giant and the United States, the main objective is to forge quality alliances to plant against the West.
In May, Beijing announced that, for the first time in twelve years, the group was looking to expandit opened the doors to other countries that wanted to belong to the BRICS. Although entry requirements and an accession process are yet to be defined, countries such as Argentina did not take long to show their interest in forming the alliance. “We are interested in joining the BRICS because it is a cooperation mechanism made up entirely of emerging economies. There are no strings attached and all cooperation is mutually beneficial,” the Argentine ambassador to China, Sabino Vaca Narvaja, reported yesterday in an interview with the Chinese state media Global Times.
The proposals promoted through the BRICS in terms of economy, security and strategy are highly attractive to many countries with emerging economies. However, the Chinese giant faces a growing number of alternatives, be it the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework promoted by the United States, or infrastructure connectivity projects led by the European Union and Japan.
Despite China’s growing political and economic influence, some analysts remind some internal friction within the BRICS, such as the tensions between India and China, which in 2020 turned into a violent border confrontation, as well as the challenges that organizations such as the New Development Bank still present.
The bloc’s leaders meet a week before the NATO Summit, and talks on strategy and international security continue on Friday at the High-Level Dialogue on World Development, where Beijing repeats as host
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