BRICS sees strength in numbers as it envisions a multipolar world order

Special BRICS sees strength in numbers as it envisions a multipolar world order
Foreign ministers of BRICS nations with representatives of new prospective members in Cape Town. (Reuters)
Short Url
Updated 21 August 2023
Follow

BRICS sees strength in numbers as it envisions a multipolar world order

BRICS sees strength in numbers as it envisions a multipolar world order
  • BRICS foreign ministers’ summit sets stage for a more ambitious role for five-nation bloc
  • Prince Faisal bin Farhan, Saudi minister of foreign affairs, joins ministerial meeting of the ‘Friends of BRICS’

LONDON: Foreign ministers from BRICS countries Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa have expressed their willingness to admit new members, including Saudi Arabia, as the bloc seeks a larger voice in the international arena. 

At a two-day conference in Cape Town on Thursday and Friday, attended by Prince Faisal bin Farhan, the Saudi minister of foreign affairs, the group presented itself as a force for a “rebalancing” of the global order away from Western-dominated institutions. 

Prince Faisal held bilateral talks with several of his counterparts and attended a ministerial meeting of the “Friends of BRICS” under the theme “Partnership for Mutually Accelerated Growth, Sustainable Development, and Inclusive Multilateralism.”

He also held talks with Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Iran’s foreign minister, to examine steps “to implement the agreement between the two countries signed in Beijing, including intensifying bilateral work to ensure international peace and security,” according to a statement from the Saudi delegation. 




Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan with Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov. (MOFA/Twitter)

Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Iran, Cuba, DRC, Comoros, Gabon, and Kazakhstan all sent representatives to Cape Town for the talks, while Egypt, Argentina, Bangladesh, Guinea-Bissau and Indonesia participated virtually.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said “more than a dozen” countries have expressed interest in joining BRICS. Meanwhile, Ma Zhaoxu, China’s vice foreign minister, told a press conference: “We expect more countries to join our big family.”

According to reports, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Algeria, Egypt, Bahrain, and Iran have all formally asked to join the BRICS, as have several other nations who appear intent upon recalibrating international ties in line with an increasingly multipolar world order.

According to the Financial Times, Saudi Arabia is also in talks with the New Development Bank, the Shanghai-based lender better known as the “BRICS bank,” to admit the Kingdom as its ninth member.   

A heads of state summit is scheduled to take place in Johannesburg in August.

The BRICS economic bloc is positioning itself as an alternative to Western-dominated centers of power. However, experts seem uncertain about its potential, pointing to innate divisions between the central BRICS powers and a lack of clarity on what membership might entail.

Nevertheless, for several countries seeking financial assistance, the stringent demands often attached to bailouts by Western-dominated institutions like the IMF and World Bank have proved increasingly unpalatable, leading many nations to look elsewhere for partnerships.




A Tunisian man and his children return home on their cart in the central Tunisian city of Sidi Bouzid. (AFP)

One such example is Tunisia. 

Battered by diminishing output, high debt and rampant inflation, with food and fuel prices spiking, many saw the IMF’s offer of a $1.9 billion loan as Tunisia’s only way out of an escalating economic and political crisis.

President Kais Saied disagreed with this perspective, however, making his views on the deal very clear at the start of April, rejecting demands to cut energy and food subsidies and reduce the public wage bill, which the loan had been made contingent upon.

“I will not hear diktats,” Saied said, noting the deadly riots that ensued in 1983 after bread prices were raised, telling Tunisians they instead had to “count on themselves.”

Others close to Saied seem to think that he has different plans to stop the country’s economic rot.

Echoing Saied, Mahmoud bin Mabrouk, a spokesperson for the pro-presidential July 25 Movement, told Arab News that Tunisia would “not accept diktats or interference” and would now look to the BRICS as “a political, economic and financial alternative that will enable Tunisia to open up to the new world.”

Should bin Mabrouk’s claim hold weight, Tunisia would become the latest North African country to gravitate toward the bloc after Algeria applied to join late last year.

Such a move would suggest that the BRICS bloc is an expanding entity offering an alternative to the IMF and World Bank for states seeking bailouts.

However, Jim O’Neill, the economist who coined the BRICS acronym, questions “what” Tunisia would actually be signing up for, describing the bloc as more of a “political club” than any defined economic grouping, and one that seems to have had negative effects financially.

“As I’ve argued before, since the politic club came around, ironically, its economic strength has weakened,” O’Neill told Arab News. He further questions what criteria the bloc would seek in new members, suggesting that in the case of Algeria and Tunisia “it all just seems (like) symbolism.”

Symbolism or not, Algeria and Tunisia are not alone in their pivot toward the nascent bloc, with Argentina, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Turkiye all considering tethering their futures to it.

Sarah Yerkes, a senior fellow at Carnegie’s Middle East Program, believes that Tunisia’s move should be taken seriously as it represents “an intentional geopolitical shift on its behalf,” noting the increased criticism of Tunisia from both Europe and the US.

“Tunisia is desperate for financial assistance and since the West is focused on conditioning aid to Tunisia on democratic reforms, it makes sense that Saied would seek assistance from countries that are less concerned with human rights and freedom,” Yerkes told Arab News.

However, like O’Neill, she questions whether the BRICS can offer an alternative to the IMF and World Bank, pointing to the bloc’s weak record when it comes to “assisting other countries and helping them achieve real, sustained economic prosperity.”

Internally, the BRICS group, at least, seems confident that it can rival the West. And, with the group set to meet in Johannesburg this August, South Africa’s foreign minister Naledi Pandor has reportedly suggested the launch of the economic bloc’s own currency, intended as a rival to dollar hegemony, would be firmly on the discussion table.

Even so, few commentators offer a defense of BRICS as a new economic bloc, with Elie Abouaoun, director of MENA at the US Institute of Peace, seeing Tunisia’s addition as a weight around the neck of a limited pool of “GDP contributors.”




The foreign ministers of South Africa and India. (Supplied)

“At this stage, the main contributors to global GDP among the BRICS countries are China and India, and most of the countries listed as potential candidates to become members are loan consumers rather than solid contributors to the global GDP,” Abouaoun told Arab News.

“With seven or eight new consumer countries integrating into the alliance, I see challenges for the largest BRICS member states and less, if any, financial benefit to the new ones. The alliance will certainly be weaker with more members so desperate to receive economic aid.”

Similarly, Liam Campling, professor of international business and development at Queen Mary University’s School of Business and Management, London, said that agreement by the BRICS cohort to admit Tunisia would be “slightly puzzling, given that it is a mid-level power.”

“When you look at the existing members, they are all sub-regional powers, each dominant in their part of the world, but when you look at Tunisia it is not dominant in North Africa in the same way Egypt is,” Campling told Arab News.

“So, from the BRICS perspective, it is not an obvious ally, but from the Tunisia side, it could obviously be an effort to garner wider macroeconomic support. Although what I think is happening is it is playing both sides, which is part of the play for any mid-ranking country.”

Campling’s skepticism stems from his assertion that while Tunisia may have fallen foul of the US, with increased political acrimony between the two, it is still very much economically “in bed” with the Europeans, adding “it’s not going to jeopardize its EU connections for this.”

And like the others, Campling has wider reservations about the BRICS project, pointing to what he terms the “central tension at the heart of it,” namely the long-running border disputes between China and India.

This, he suggests, renders the bloc more of an ad-hoc alliance than a cohesive unit that can direct global trade, policy and finance in a manner akin to that of the IMF or World Bank, and thus he questions the assertion that BRICS could become an alternative economic bloc.

“Essentially, I do not see it being able to offer a sustained alternative until that central tension between India and China is resolved, and I do not see that being resolved, which means there is nothing really holding it together, leaving little space for a more sustained role,” he said.

Abouaoun says what is really missing is a “normative model” that other countries can buy into beyond the BRICS bloc’s defense of “multipolarity.” Scratch beneath the surface and there seems to be an absence of substance — an opinion shared by Yerkes.

“At this point it doesn’t seem much more than a potential counterweight to Europe and the US, and without a foundational ideology, particularly with members with vastly different economic philosophies, it doesn’t seem likely that it would be a strong competitor,” she said.

Consensus on BRICS’ prospects notwithstanding, O’Neill is at odds with the others when it comes to the question of whether the world needs another economic bloc, believing focus should instead be on strengthening every economy, rather than acting in collectives.

Yerkes, Campling and Abouaoun seem less opposed to the notion of a new bloc, recognizing that US unipolarity seems to be on the way out. Nevertheless, they stress that the bloc’s value would be dependent on its make-up and its intentions.

Indeed, with the likes of Saudi Arabia potentially among its ranks, the BRICS could attain new levels of financial and diplomatic clout, transforming the international arena. 

“Historically, the dominance of the West, and its various international bodies and institutions, has been extremely self-serving, producing contradictory outcomes leading to a world that is more volatile and more uneven and increasingly depending on indebtedness,” Campling said.

“This has all been pushed in the interest of Europeans and the US. Maybe we should look to the 1970s and the Non-Aligned Movement — made up of many of those purportedly looking to join BRICS — for inspiration.”


Ukraine targets a key Crimean city a day after striking Russia’s Black Sea Fleet headquarters

Ukraine targets a key Crimean city a day after striking Russia’s Black Sea Fleet headquarters
Updated 57 min 23 sec ago
Follow

Ukraine targets a key Crimean city a day after striking Russia’s Black Sea Fleet headquarters

Ukraine targets a key Crimean city a day after striking Russia’s Black Sea Fleet headquarters
  • Sevastopol was put under an air raid alert for about an hour after debris from intercepted missiles fell near a pier
  • Loud blasts were also heard near Vilne in northern Crimea, followed by rising clouds of smoke

KYIV: Ukraine on Saturday morning launched another missile attack on Sevastopol on the occupied Crimean Peninsula, a Russian-installed official said, a day after an attack on the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet that left a serviceman missing and the main building smoldering.
Sevastopol was put under an air raid alert for about an hour after debris from intercepted missiles fell near a pier, Gov. Mikhail Razvozhayev wrote on the messaging app Telegram. Ferry traffic in the area was also halted and later resumed.
Loud blasts were also heard near Vilne in northern Crimea, followed by rising clouds of smoke, according to a pro-Ukraine Telegram news channel that reports on developments on the peninsula. Crimea, illegally annexed by Russia in 2014, has been a frequent target for Ukrainian forces since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a full-scale invasion of the neighboring country in February 2022.
Ukraine’s intelligence chief, Kyrylo Budanov, told Voice of America on Saturday that at least nine people were killed and 16 others wounded as a result of Kyiv’s attack on the Black Sea Fleet on Friday. He claimed that Alexander Romanchuk, a Russian general commanding forces along the key southeastern front line, was “in a very serious condition” following the attack.
Budanov’s claim couldn’t be independently verified, and he didn’t comment on whether Western-made missiles were used in Friday’s attack. The Russian Defense Ministry initially said that the strike killed one service member at the Black Sea Fleet headquarters, but later issued a statement that he was missing.
Ukraine’s military also offered more details about Friday’s attack. It said the air force conducted 12 strikes on the Black Sea Fleet headquarters, targeting areas where personnel, military equipment and weapons were concentrated. It said that two anti-aircraft missile systems and four Russian artillery units were hit.
Crimea has served as the key hub supporting Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Sevastopol, the main base of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet since the 19th century, has had a particular importance for navy operations since the start of the war.
Ukraine has increasingly targeted naval facilities in Crimea in recent weeks while the brunt of its summer counteroffensive makes slow gains in the east and south of Ukraine, the Institute for the Study of War said. Military experts say it is essential for Ukraine to keep up its attacks on targets in Crimea to degrade Russian morale and weaken its military.
In other developments, US President Joe Biden told his Ukrainian counterpart at their White House meeting Thursday that the US would give Ukraine a version of the longer-range ATACMS ballistic missiles, without specifying how many or when they would be delivered, according to two US officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the matter before an official announcement.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, and other Ukrainian leaders have long pushed the US and other Western allies to provide longer-distance weapons that would enable Kyiv to ramp up its strikes behind Russian lines while themselves staying out of firing range.
The US has balked so far, worried that Kyiv could use the weapons to hit deep into Russian territory and escalate the conflict. The Army Tactical Missile System, known as ATACMS, could give Ukraine the ability to strike Russian targets from as far away as about 180 miles (300 kilometers), but the US also has other variants of the missile that have a shorter range.
Elsewhere, Ukraine’s military said Saturday that Russia launched 15 Iranian-made Shahed drones at the front-line Zaporizhzhia region in the southeast, as well as Dnipropetrovsk province farther north. It claimed to have destroyed 14 of the drones.
Separately, Zaporizhzhia regional Gov. Yuri Malashko said that Russia over the previous day carried out 86 strikes on 27 settlements in the province, many of them lying only a few kilometers (miles) from the fighting. Malashko said that an 82-year-old civilian was killed by artillery fire.
In the neighboring Kherson region, Gov. Oleksandr Prokudin said at least one person died and three other people were wounded over the past day because of Russian shelling. Russia fired 25 shells targeting the city of Kherson, which lies along the Dneiper River that marks the contact line between the warring sides, Prokudin said.
Residential quarters were hit, including medical and education institutions, government-built stations that serve food and drinks, as well as critical infrastructure facilities and a penitentiary, he said.


Trudeau pledges Canada’s support for Ukraine and punishment for Russia

Trudeau pledges Canada’s support for Ukraine and punishment for Russia
Updated 23 September 2023
Follow

Trudeau pledges Canada’s support for Ukraine and punishment for Russia

Trudeau pledges Canada’s support for Ukraine and punishment for Russia
  • “We’re continuing to impose costs on Russia and ensuring that those responsible for this illegal, unjustifiable invasion do not benefit from it,” Trudeau said
  • Canada and Ukraine agreed to establish a working group with G7 partners to study seizure and forfeiture of Russian assets

OTTAWA: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced several support measures for Ukraine, including military, economic and humanitarian assistance, while also pledging an additional show of diplomatic backing through steps intended to punish Russia over the war.
“We’re continuing to impose costs on Russia and ensuring that those responsible for this illegal, unjustifiable invasion do not benefit from it,” Trudeau said Friday during a joint news conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Ottawa, the Canadian capital.
Zelensky also addressed Canada’s Parliament on Friday. He flew into Ottawa late Thursday after meetings with US President Joe Biden and lawmakers in Washington. He spoke at the UN General Assembly on Wednesday.
Canada and Ukraine agreed to establish a working group with G7 partners to study seizure and forfeiture of Russian assets, including from the Russian Central Bank, Trudeau said.
Canada also added 63 Russian individuals and entities to the country’s sanctions list, including “those complicit in the kidnapping of children and the spreading of disinformation,” Trudeau said.
Canada’s pledge to stand with Ukraine will include $650 million in new military assistance over the next three years, Trudeau said.
Canada will provide Ukraine with 50 armored vehicles, including armored medical evacuation vehicles built in London, Ontario. Pilot and maintenance instructors for F-16 fighter jets, support for Leopard 2 battle tank maintenance, 35 drones with high-resolution cameras, light vehicles and ammunition are part of the intended support package, Trudeau said.
The multiyear support also will include a financial contribution to a UK-led consortium delivering air defense equipment to Ukraine, Trudeau said.
Canada’s monetary support will continue into the 2024 fiscal year, while the governments also have signed a free trade agreement, Trudeau said.
Other assistance for nongovernmental organizations and Ukraine’s government will include measures to improve “cyber resilience,” rebuild local infrastructure and assist farmers. Canada also plans to contribute funds for Ukraine’s national war memorial and money to increase the availability of mental health support at the appropriate time, he said.
“We stand here absolutely united in our defense of democracy and our condemnation of (Russian President) Vladimir Putin’s unprovoked, unjustified and unconscionable invasion of Ukraine,” Trudeau said.


Truck bomb kills at least 10 in Somalia

Truck bomb kills at least 10 in Somalia
Updated 23 September 2023
Follow

Truck bomb kills at least 10 in Somalia

Truck bomb kills at least 10 in Somalia
  • It was not immediately clear who was responsible, but Al Shabab frequently carries out bombings in the Horn of Africa country
  • “So far I have seen 10 dead people including soldiers and civilians,” said police officer Ahmed Aden

MOGADISHU: A truck bomb exploded at a checkpoint in the central Somali town of Beledweyne on Saturday, killing at least 10 people and obliterating nearby buildings, a police officer said.
It was not immediately clear who was responsible, but Al Shabab frequently carries out bombings in the Horn of Africa country.
“So far I have seen 10 dead people including soldiers and civilians and over a dozen others injured, but the death toll is sure to rise,” police officer Ahmed Aden told Reuters.
Beledweyne is in central Somalia’s Hiran region which has recently witnessed battles between the military and Al-Shabab.
Aden said the dead included five police officers who fired on the truck in a failed attempt to stop it ramming the checkpoint. Nearby buildings and shops were reduced to rubble, along with the checkpoint, he added.
A woman, Halima Nur, who was near the site, told Reuters her niece and others had been in a nearby shop and could not be reached. “I do not know what to say, all the kiosks are now just rubble. I can’t trace my niece,” she said.
Al Shabab has been battling Somalia’s central government for more than a decade, aiming to establish its rule based on strict interpretation of Islamic sharia law.


Russia says Karabakh Armenian fighters start giving up arms

Russia says Karabakh Armenian fighters start giving up arms
Updated 23 September 2023
Follow

Russia says Karabakh Armenian fighters start giving up arms

Russia says Karabakh Armenian fighters start giving up arms
  • “The armed formations of Karabakh have begun handing over weapons and military equipment under the control of Russian peacekeepers,” said Russia
  • Six armored vehicles, more than 800 guns, about 5,000 units of ammunition were handed over by the fighters

NEAR KORNIDZOR, Armenia: Russia said that Armenian fighters in the breakaway region of Nagorno Karabakh had started to give up arms as some humanitarian aid reached the 120,000 Armenians there who say the world has abandoned them after Azerbaijan defeated their forces.
The Armenians of Karabakh, which is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, were forced to declare a cease-fire on Sept. 20 after a lightning 24-hour military operation by the much larger Azerbaijani military.
“The armed formations of Karabakh have begun handing over weapons and military equipment under the control of Russian peacekeepers,” said Russia, which has around 2,000 peacekeepers in Karabakh.
Russia’s defense ministry said so far six armored vehicles, more than 800 guns, about 5,000 units of ammunition were handed over by the fighters.
Russia said it had delivered more than 50 tons of food and other aid.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said it had supplied 28,000 diapers as well as blankets and fuel. An ICRC aid convoy reached the border headed toward Karabakh late on Saturday afternoon, Reuters witness said, the first since Azerbaijan retook the region.
The future of Karabakh and its 120,000 ethnic Armenians now hangs in the balance: Azerbaijan wants to integrate the long-contested region, but ethnic Armenians say they fear they will be persecuted and have accused the world of abandoning them.
Armenians in Karabakh told Reuters that they were essentially besieged in the region, with little food, electricity or fuel — and called on big powers to help them.
Azerbaijan envisages an amnesty for Karabakh Armenian fighters who give up their arms and has said the Armenians can leave the region for Armenia if they want.
Armenia, which lost a 2020 war to Azerbaijan over the region, has set up space for tens of thousands of Armenians from Karabakh, though Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan says he does not want them to leave their homes unless it is absolutely necessary.
US Senator Gary Peters, leading a congressional delegation to the Armenia-Azerbaijan border on Saturday, said the situation required international observers and transparency from Azerbaijan.
“I think the world needs to know exactly what’s happening in there,” Peters, a Democrat from Michigan, told reporters. “We’ve heard from the Azerbaijani government that there’s nothing to see, nothing to worry about, but if that’s the case then we should allow international observers in to see.”
“I think there needs to be some visibility,” he said.

’ABANDONED’
Azerbaijan began its “anti-terrorist” operation on Tuesday against Nagorno-Karabakh after some of its troops were killed in what Baku said were attacks from the mountainous region.
The United States said it was deeply concerned by “Azerbaijan’s military actions.”
Accounts of the fighting were chilling.
Armenui Karapetyan, an Armenian in Karabakh, said he was now homeless, holding just a few possessions and a photograph of his 24-year-old son who died in 2020, after leaving his home in the village of Kusapat.
“Today we were thrown out into the street — they made us vagabonds,” Karapetyan told Armenia A1+, a partner of Reuters.
“What can I say? We live in an unfair, abandoned world. I have nothing to say. I feel sorry for the blood of our boys. I feel sorry for our lands for which our boys sacrificed their lives, and today... I miss the grave of my son.”
Thousands of Karabakh Armenians have massed at the airport seeking the protection of Russian peacekeepers there.
Svetlana Alaverdyan, from the village of Arajadzor, said she had fled with just the clothes on her back after gun fights gripped the village.
“They were shooting on the right, they were shooting on the left — we went out one after another, without taking clothes,” she told Armenia A1+.
“I had two sons — I gave them away, what else can I give? The superpowers resolve their issues at our expense.”


Gunmen kidnap dozens in Nigerian university: sources

Gunmen kidnap dozens in Nigerian university: sources
Updated 23 September 2023
Follow

Gunmen kidnap dozens in Nigerian university: sources

Gunmen kidnap dozens in Nigerian university: sources
  • Dozens of gunmen from criminal gangs called bandits stormed Sabon Gida village on the edge of a Federal University
  • They took away at least 24 female students from the hostels along with two male neighbors, one of whom is a staff (member) of the university

KANO, Nigeria: Gunmen have kidnapped more than 30 people, including at least 24 female students, in a raid in and around a university in northwest Nigeria’s Zamfara state, residents said Saturday.
Dozens of gunmen from criminal gangs called bandits stormed Sabon Gida village on the edge of a Federal University outside the state capital Gusau in a predawn attack on Friday breaking into three female hostels and taking away the occupants, residents told AFP.
The attack was the first mass kidnapping at a college since President Bola Ahmed Tinubu came to power, promising to tackle the country’s security challenges.
“The bandits rode into the village on motorcycles and broke into the hostels and gained access into rooms by bringing down the windows,” Sabon Gida resident Sahabi Musa said.
“They took away at least 24 female students from the hostels along with two male neighbors, one of whom is a staff (member) of the university,” said Musa, who lives close to the hostels.
The attackers went into the university and seized nine welders working on a new building while they were sleeping, said Shehu Hashimu, another resident who corroborated Musa’s account.
One of the welders managed to escape and returned to the school, Hashimu said.
Troops deployed from Gusau, 20 kilometers away and engaged the attackers in a gunfight but a group of the kidnappers herded the hostages away while another group faced the soldiers, the two sources said.
“The attackers had a field day. They operated in the village from 3:00 am to 6:00 am unchallenged before troops arrived,” Hashimu said.
A video shared online after the assault showed ransacked rooms in one of the hostels with their windows pulled down.
Yazid Abubakar, Zamfara state police spokesman, confirmed the attack but declined to provide details, saying security personnel were working to free the captives.
A military officer said a military operation was under way as soldiers were confronting the attackers in a forest close to the nearby town of Tsafe.
“Six of the female students have been rescued by troops who pursued the terrorists into the forest,” said the officer, who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to speak on the operation.
Zamfara is one of several states in northwestern and central Nigeria terrorized by bandits who raid villages, kill and abduct residents as well as burn homes after looting them.
The gangs maintain camps in a huge forest straddling Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna and Niger states.
The criminals have been notorious for mass kidnappings of students from schools in recent years.
In February 2021, bandits raided a girl’s boarding school in the town of Jangebe in Zamfara state, kidnapping more than 300 students.
The girls were freed days later following a ransom payment by the authorities.
Nigeria is facing a myriad of security challenges, including a 14-year militant insurgency in the northeast that has killed at least 40,000 people and forced more than two million others to flee their homes.