The BRICS leaders (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) will seek this week in Johannesburg that this bloc, which represents almost a quarter of world GDP, have greater economic weight and global political projection.
The South African President, Cyril Ramaphosawill receive his counterparts from China and Brazil, Xi Jinping and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, to participate starting Tuesday in the three-day annual summit.
The Russian president will also join by videoconference Vladimir Putin, under an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court that, in theory, South Africa must abide by. His foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, will travel to Johannesburg in his place.
The BRICS, made up of the largest emerging powers, with billions of inhabitants, believe that the world order is at the service of the interests of the rich western powers and that this must change.
“The traditional system of global governance has become dysfunctional, flawed and lacking in action,” the Chinese ambassador to South Africa said on Friday. Chen Xiaodong.
The BRICS “are increasingly becoming a stalwart force in defense of the international justice», he added.
The block, despite the great disparities among its five members, generates growing interest.
At least 40 countries have expressed their desire to join the club and 23 of them have already formally submitted their application for membership.
polarized world
According to the South African ambassador for Asia and the BRICS, Anil Sooklalthis interest is explained by the “very polarized world in which we live, which has become even more polarized by the crisis between Russia and Ukraine and in which countries are forced to take sides”.
“The countries of the South do not want to be told who to support, how to behave and how to handle their sovereign affairs. Now they are strong enough to assert their respective positions,” Sooklal told Friday. afp.
For this reason, he added, the BRICS have become a hope for countries seeking to restructure the world “architecture”.
Lebogang Legodi, professor of international politics at the Limpopo Universityagrees that many countries seeking to join the group “see the BRICS as an alternative to the current hegemony.”
In a show of interest in the group, another 50 leaders will attend a program called “BRICS friends».
This year’s meeting coincides with “a critical turning point,” he said. Steven Gruzd, of the Africa-Russia project of the South African Institute of International Relations. “The current multilateral system is under pressure,” she stressed.
The decision of add new members to the BRICS it will be taken at the end of the summit, according to Sooklal.
For the South African president, the fact that 50 heads of state are traveling to the country as a result of the summit “demonstrates the influence and South African impact” in the world. “We are going to have a fantastic BRICS summit,” she celebrated.
The experts who closely follow the BRICS are not so optimistic about the results of the meeting.
“I don’t think this summit will yield such spectacular results because the power is still in the hands of Western countries. China it is growing, but it is not yet the dominant power,” said Gruzd of the South African Institute of International Relations.
The BRICS were born in 2009 and currently represent 23% of world GDP, 42% of the population and more than 16% of world trade.
