Foreign ministers of BRICS member states and 13 other countries interested in working with anti-Western nations met in Russia on Monday outside the framework of the annual BRICS summit to discuss ways to expand trade without using the U.S. dollar, among other topics.
“Active work is underway to implement the decisions of last year’s Johannesburg summit, in particular on improving the international monetary system and developing a national currency settlement platform for mutual trade,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said. Said on monday.
BRICS held its last annual summit in August in Johannesburg, South Africa, which will chair the organisation in 2023. Russian dictator Vladimir Putin did not attend the occasion because South Africa is a member state of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and there is an outstanding arrest warrant for Putin on charges of war crimes in Ukraine. Russia is this year’s chair, host The official summit will be held in Kazan in October.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa poses with BRICS leaders for a photo with the new BRICS members on the final day of the summit at the Sandton Convention Centre in the Sandton area of Johannesburg, South Africa, on August 24, 2023. Also pictured are Chinese President Xi Jinping, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi (Per Anders Pettersson/Getty Images)
of Majority With 100% of international trade conducted using the US dollar, the strength of the US currency has increased, exposing countries to potential sanctions. As the increasing sanctions imposed on Russia and China are in response to numerous human rights violations by authoritarian regimes, both countries have been at the forefront of efforts within and outside the BRICS world to “de-dollarize” their economies and ideally avoid sanctions.
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“Dedollarization” is a big topic Discussions at the 2023 BRICS summit could see the dollar being replaced by the Chinese yuan or Russian ruble in the short term, but in the long term, BRICS representatives are proposing that the member states of the alliance create their own currencies. currency To protect member states from sanctions and human rights violations demanded by Western countries.
“Why can’t an institution like the BRICS Bank have a currency to finance trade relations between Brazil and China, and between Brazil and all the other BRICS countries?” Brazil’s socialist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said in April 2023. “Who decided that the dollar will be the currency (for trade) after the end of gold parity?”
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, left, shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping after a signing ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, Friday, April 14, 2023. (Ken Ishii/Representative Photo via The Associated Press)
Brazil has sought its own dollar-based trade restrictions and reached an agreement with China in March 2023 to use the yuan for bilateral trade.
Underscoring BRICS’ disregard for human rights norms, Monday’s meeting began with a moment of silence for Iran’s late President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian, who were scheduled to attend the summit. The two died in a mysterious helicopter crash in May along with six others while returning from neighboring Azerbaijan. Raisi, a long-time prosecutor before becoming president, had a history of brutally persecuting suspected dissidents and is believed to have led the massacre of thousands of protesters.
Russia’s top diplomat, Lavrov, then delivered a blistering rebuke of the West, ensuring the tone of the meeting would be combative towards the US and its allies.
“Recent international developments have stripped away the mask of the Western countries, who, under the guise of a rules-based order, have only ever paid lip service to the almost exclusive right to define so-called universal values,” Lavrov argued. translation This was reported by Türkiye’s state-run news agency Anadolu Agency.
Ali Bagheri Kani, who replaced Amir Abdullahian as Iran’s interim foreign minister, Said He told reporters on Monday that BRICS is “the largest international economic and trade organization operating outside the framework of Western unilateralism.”
“The presence of the Islamic Republic of Iran in this organization demonstrates the status and importance of our country in the multilateral framework. [world] “The system is wrong,” he claimed, according to Iran’s state-run propaganda outlet Press TV.
Speaking at a separate event, the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), on Friday, Putin emphasized distancing himself from the US dollar.
“We are witnessing a real competition between nations for greater sovereignty,” Putin said. Said Speaking at a trade forum, he said: “Countries that until recently acted as leaders in global development are now using all means to maintain their elusive role as hegemons.”
“In line with BRICS, we are working to develop an independent payment system that is free from political pressure, abuse and external sanctions interference,” he explained. “BRICS has great potential to attract new members.”
BRICS was originally a trade and security alliance uniting Russia, China, Brazil, India, and South Africa, which expanded in 2024 to include Egypt, Ethiopia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Iran. In its first major expansion, announced in late 2023, BRICS also extended invitations to Argentina and Saudi Arabia. Argentina declined to join, and Saudi Arabia appeared to accept the invitation, although as of February the membership process had not been fully completed.
Saudi Arabia sent a senior official to Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, this week for a two-day BRICS meeting. TASSA Russian news agency included Saudi Arabia in the list of non-BRICS countries attending, as Saudi representatives are expected to take part in the talks on Tuesday, but described the country as a “full-fledged BRICS member state.” Riyadh appears more focused on another event, the Saudi “Latin America Priority Summit.” The Beginning The conference, which took place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Tuesday, was aimed at expanding Saudi Arabia’s economic influence in South America.
according to TASSBRICS is currently in negotiations with around 30 countries interested in joining, supporting Putin’s assertion that BRICS has “the potential” to expand. According to TASS, a total of 22 countries will be represented at the BRICS meeting this week. The list of non-members includes some thugs with repeated human rights violations, such as Cuba, Belarus, Vietnam, Turkey and Venezuela. Other countries that have sent envoys include Bahrain, Mauritania, Laos, Kazakhstan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Thailand.
