The BRICS summit hosted by President Vladimir Putin which was held in Kazan, Russia, concluded on Thursday. It was, in the eyes of the Kremlin, a foreign policy triumph for the Russian head of state, who demonstrated to the world that he was anything but isolated, notwithstanding his invasion of Ukraine, the economic sanctions on his country, and the fact the ICC had issued an arrest warrant for him.
The core members of BRICS are Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, who at the last summit expanded the grouping to include Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates. Saudi Arabia has also been invited to join. All the leaders of the key five attended in person, with the exception of Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva who had a minor accident before he was due to leave, and had to participate via video-conferencing.
BRICS, founded in 2006, represents more than 40% of the world’s population and about a third of its economy, and would constitute a formidable organisation if all its members viewed the world through the same lens. There are, however, major differences in approach between some of them, not excluding the original five such as India and China, who nevertheless met on the sidelines of the summit to further elaborate on their policy to avoid border incidents.
Mr Putin’s general aim was to promote an image of broad agreement between the members and skim over the areas where there were divergences of opinion. After all, the organisation is intended as an alternative to the G7. The final declaration which was made public on Thursday covered the grand sweep of world affairs, both economic and political, and ran to a less than concise 134 points on 43 pages.
Ideally Russia along with China is seeking a “New World Order,” with which not all the members might have been fully in harmony given the level of their dealings with the West, and so the communiqué settled for advocating a multipolar world order. There was no such problem in relation to the call for comprehensive reform of the UN, where it was said there was need for increased democracy, representativeness and effectiveness.
President Putin is set on replacing the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency. However, while there were various measures in the declaration expressing support for alternative currencies and an international payment system which would counter the US dollar, among other things, at a practical level it is highly unlikely for a variety of reasons that this can be achieved anytime soon.
Where the two major conflicts of the world were concerned, apart from condemnation of Israel’s attack on the Iranian embassy, as well as on humanitarian aid points and infrastructure facilities in Palestine, in addition to the bombing of pagers in Lebanon, what was said about Gaza was restrained. An immediate ceasefire was called for, as well as the unconditional release of all hostages. It was a reflection, no doubt, of Egypt’s key role as a mediator in the conflict.
And the statements on Ukraine were infinitely more low key than Mr Putin presumably would have liked. The leaders “welcomed” the proposals for “good offices” for a settlement, adding, “We recall the national positions on the situation in and around Ukraine, expressed in relevant fora, including the UN Security Council and the UN General Assembly.” It was hardly a ringing endorsement of Russia’s narrative about the invasion.
It was reported that 20 heads of state had been invited to the conference including Turkey, Bolivia, Venezuela and Nicaragua. The one which most interests Guyana, of course, is Venezuela, whose President, Nicolás Maduro did unexpectedly attend. He was fulsome in his praise for Russia and its head of state, applauding “the great battle that Russia is waging” at present “against Nazism, against fascism,” when he met Mr Putin on the sidelines of the summit.
The following morning he was reported as saying that Venezuela “is part of this family of the BRICS” asserting that the principles of the group were applied in his country “out of conviction.” Vice President Delcy Rodriguez who was part of Mr Maduro’s delegation, made her own contribution, thanking the Russian President for his unconditional support for Venezuela’s entry into BRICS.
“Our country has a deep historical doctrine whose values, inherited from Bolívar, coincide with the principles that inspire this bloc for the construction of a multipolar world, free of hegemonism,” she was said to have posted on Telegram. She added: “With its immense energy reserves, Venezuela will make a great contribution to the BRICS in the construction of a new international economic order.”
For his part President Putin was quoted as saying: “We support its aspiration to join the work of BRICS; Venezuela is an old and reliable partner of Russia in Latin America and in the world at large.” But what Mr Maduro called “the indestructible ties, moral ties” which Russia and Venezuela had built over the years were insufficient it turned out, to guarantee entry into BRICS.
The impediment was Brazil. The Venezuelan press reported the Brazilian newspaper O Globo as saying that presidential advisor Celso Amorim did not consider Venezuela’s entry into BRICS as “opportune” at this time. While there was no enmity with Mr Maduro’s government, he said, the country was in a situation which made it difficult to accept it as a member. In addition, an unnamed Brazilian official was quoted as saying, “We don’t see any advantage” [to Venezuela being admitted to the grouping].
The ‘situation’ relates to the matter of the Venezuelan election, and the fact that Brasilia will not recognise Maduro as the legitimate winner until he produces the tallies proving this.
Caracas was unsurprisingly incensed by the Brazilian veto, the foreign ministry deeming it “immoral aggression”. President Putin was consoling, explaining that while he agreed with Venezuela’s position it could only join BRICS if there was a consensus in favour among its members. “We know Brazil’s position. We don’t agree, Venezuela is fighting for its survival,” he said, adding that he would work to help the two countries mend relations.
From Guyana’s point of view it is no great tragedy that Venezuela is being excluded from BRICS for the time being. The fewer fora where she has the opportunity to spread her poison and fantasies about our western border among nations who will not hear what we have to say, the better. It will be remembered that decades ago Guyana managed to exclude Venezuela from the Non-Aligned Movement for the same reason.
Exactly how this current scenario will evolve is difficult to predict, but in the meantime, the government here should be working to educate our own public about the border issue, as well as the world beyond our frontiers.
