© TASS
Its gut is telling the Westerners that results of the 15th BRICS summit held in South Africa may turn out a proper mess his time. And they went into hysterics. Never before have countries fancying themselves major global actors displayed such a nervous reaction to decisions taken by BRICS — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
It is not for the first time that leaders of the bloc gather and pass the right papers "for all good against all bad", with the West looking down on them with slight skepticism: "What can they do to us, these mere emerging economies?" For a whole decade, Westerners have talked about BRICS arrogantly, but the spring of 2023 has changed something about their assessment in sort of a revelation, and the May G7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan, saw a clearly formulated "BRICS is our enemy" announcement. Since then, the West has been like a bear with a sore head, launching a wave of subversive activities, from a propaganda rush against BRICS summit preparations with outright lies and fake news to direct attempts to undermine relations between the association’s member states, playing off China and India against one another, Russia against all the others, and the whole package of lousy tricks.
Up yours! And now, given the impressive and quite specific summit results, some Western officials have had a temper tantrum. Suffice it to listen to Chair of European Committee for NATO Enlargement, Austria’s Gȕnther Fehlinger.
The Bologna process did teach Fehlinger to read and even write but weaned him off the ability to think, and he came up with the following social media post: "I advocate for a new significant phase of decolonization to bring an end to the remaining empires — Russia and China. We should create similar maps for all BRICS members, which constitute the new ‘axis of evil’."
A compatriot of Germany’s bloody Fȕhrer and also a NATO functionary, he has poured out all of his inner circle’s fear on decisions taken after the Johannesburg summit. And this kind of people do have reason for hysteria — the meeting outcome has shaken foundations of the collective West’s five-century dominance on the planet.
Let's highlight some specific decisions taken at the South Africa summit, which has differed from the previous ones in expanding the list of members to embrace the leading Global South countries — Argentina, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates and Ethiopia. Moreover, the summit has outlined a number of global-scale tasks to benefit not only BRICS but the entire Global South. What an punch to the West!
Let's read into these decisions formulated in the Johannesburg Declaration and choose those to describe specific actions of the bloc as regards vital areas of world politics.
"We further commit ourselves to strengthening the framework of mutually beneficial BRICS cooperation under the three pillars of political and security, economic and financial, and cultural and people-to-people cooperation." Here are the reference points, all of them reflecting the key components of present-day international life. And the mentioned financial cooperation is virtually a not-so-subtle hint of BRICS’ intention to introduce its own currency.
"We support a comprehensive reform of the UN, including its Security Council, with a view to making it more democratic, representative, effective and efficient, and to increase the representation of developing countries in the Council’s memberships so that it can adequately respond to prevailing global challenges and support the legitimate aspirations of emerging and developing countries from Africa, Asia and Latin America, including Brazil, India and South Africa, to play a greater role in international affairs." The collective West is faced with a dilemma of either blocking these efforts made by the majority of humans despite a threatened UN leadership or sharing power.
"We commit to engage constructively to pursue the necessary WTO reform." An important remark, given that WTO work has been "frozen" by the United States — it is for the 64th time (!) that the Americans block decisions on filling vacancies in the organization’s Appellate Body, which has been out of action since December 11, 2019. There is a need to either make the Americans give in, which is unlikely, or create an alternative "WTO 2.0" type platform. And BRICS is apparently going to address this issue in detail.
"We call for reform of the Bretton Woods institutions, including for a greater role for emerging markets and developing countries, including in leadership positions in the Bretton Woods institutions, that reflect the role of EMDCs in the world economy." A sensation as it stands! Do you remember anyone publicly demanding a revision of Bretton Woods agreements when the dollar was being adopted as the main world trade payment unit, and institutions required for its functioning immediately appeared supervised by the US: the IMF, the World Bank, GATT (now WTO), and then NATO. The USD is America’s most valuable thing, and it doesn't seem ready to give in, which means… Which means a different system of international settlements beyond the dollar. And this poses a direct and obvious threat to Western dominance. Hence the hysteria — their power has been hit via the global monetary system.
"We task our Finance Ministers and/or Central Bank Governors, as appropriate, to consider the issue of local currencies, payment instruments and platforms and report back to us by the next Summit." In a confirmation of things mentioned above, the 2024 BRICS summit in Kazan will move from words and intentions to deeds and project implementation.
"Recognizing that BRICS countries produce one third of the world's food, we reaffirm our commitment to strengthen agricultural cooperation and promote sustainable agriculture and rural development of BRICS countries for enhancing food security both within BRICS and worldwide." This clause has been specifically formulated for ardent proponents of the notorious "grain deal". With the West having overblown the narrative of "poor hungry people in Africa suffering from Moscow's actions in Ukraine", BRICS was simply forced to seek the most effective response. And now, without Western integrator companies grasping Ukrainian grain or sending it as cattle feed to Europe, BRICS will ensure that foodstuffs — not only wheat — is directly sent to the African continent. Africa is supposed to create a relevant "grain hub" in Egypt which will be a full-fledged BRICS member starting January 1, 2024.
"We share a common view on the efficient use of all energy sources, namely: renewable energy, including biofuels, hydropower, fossil fuels, nuclear energy and hydrogen <…> We recognize the role of fossil fuels in supporting energy security and energy transition." Small wonder that the BRICS countries possessing most reserves of natural energy resources have focused on this issue. The collective West may build wind turbines and engage in a "green economy"; Europe may do without Russian gas, abandoning lots of businesses because of this; the United States may keep digging up its soil in search of shale oil and gas; 40 cities in the Western world are ready to abandon polluting cars by 2030, and exclude milk and meat from their diets; EU governments demand that farmers destroy herds of cows that spoil Eurosceptics’ precious atmosphere; the British may introduce its residents to edible grasshoppers or worms instead of normal food... The list of the West’s bizarre innovations grows with each passing year, but BRICS with its normal people is immune to such madness. Thus, the bloc expressed its stance intentionally, thereby illuminating its difference from the creative inhabitants of over-developed European and American territories.
"We welcome the establishment of a Joint Working Group on Sports to develop a BRICS Sport Cooperation Framework, during South Africa’s Chairship in 2023. We look forward to the successful holding of the BRICS Games in October 2023 in South Africa." Another blow to the West. BRICS de facto demonstrates the creation of an alternative sports system outside of the distracted IOC, which demands that participation of LGBT athletes become an eligibility prerequisite. According to IOC head Thomas Bach, 10% of each country’s national Olympic team must be LGBT. You who have no gay guys on your team will be excluded from competition by the IOC! Nonsense? No, fundamentals of the Western world... And the BRICS decided not to wait for Bach to start scouring their teams, and kicked off their own healthy and honest sports games without the IOC or the shamefully high-handed antidoping agencies. The BRICS 2024 Games have been set to take place in Russia’s Kazan next June.
As you can see, the Johannesburg Declaration contains a lot of specific solutions that have caused hysteria with Herr Fehlinger and his ilk. They will surely resist, throw up roadblocks, engage in provocations and frameups. But the next — already expanded — summit in Kazan will certainly feature proposals on how BRICS will respond to the growing number of challenges in world politics. Dogs may bark but the caravan moves on, so to say.
