Brics summit ‘not anti-US’

One of the most anticipated discussions at the expanded Brics summit is likely to be around how members of the grouping (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) and those in the global south trade with their domestic currencies instead of the US dollar.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin gathered more than 20 heads of state at the summit, including South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa, China’s President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

US and Western hegemony

Ramaphosa arrived in Kazan, Russia, on Tuesday to lead South Africa’s participation in the Brics Summit.

On the agenda this year will be discussions of creating a world order to challenge the United States (US) and Western hegemony.

ALSO READ: More nations join Brics? Demand for membership has set unprecedented records

New reserve currency

Ramaphosa’s spokesperson Vincent Magwenya told 702, that the establishment of a new reserve currency, which would significantly impact the US dollar, is among the issues being discussed at the summit.

“It is an important issue among many other issues, but there is still a process that needs to be engaged on before we get to a point where we’re able to finalise the utilisation of local currencies when trading amongst ourselves as Brics members.”

Brics ‘not anti-US’

Magwenya said the Brics grouping is not anti-US, despite the dollar being the reserve currency which allows America at times to act unilaterally in deciding which countries can trade with each other, a case in point being Russia which the US has frozen out of the financial system.

“I think that is a mischaracterisation of the purpose of Brics and the kind of deliberations that are taking place within the Brics groups of countries. It’s not an anti-US or anti any particular block of countries.

“It’s a grouping of countries that seek to enhance their trade and political ties. It is not obsessed with how it interacts with the US,” Magwenya said.

Membership

With more than 30 countries waiting for their memberships to be approved to join Brics, the economic bloc of the development nations is set to exceed the G7 as the world’s largest economic power bloc in a few years’ time.

Considering that 43% of the world’s population and 27% of the world reside within the bloc, and some countries ditching the dollar as a trading currency, experts believe Brics could soon overtake the G7, a group of rich, mainly Western, countries.

ALSO READ: Ramaphosa hopes Brics partnership will lead to more benefits for Africa