Reforming global structures step-by-step
Reforming global structures step-by-step
Expanding BRICS holds Ministerial Meeting in Russia
A two-day meeting of BRICS Foreign Ministers was held in the Russian city of Nizhny Novgorod on June 10-11, 2024. BRICS now has ten members. In addition to Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, five new nations have been incorporated into the Group, namely, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Ethiopia, and Iran. Argentina had been included in the plans for the expansion of BRICS, but a new government in the South American nation decided to withdraw before its implementation.
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BRICS 2024 Ministerial Meeting Joint Statement
The Nizhny Novgorod Ministerial Meeting released a Joint Statement that reaffirmed the ministers’ “commitment to strengthening the framework of BRICS Strategic Partnership under the three pillars of cooperation – politics and security, economy and finance, cultural and people-to-people exchanges. They reaffirmed their commitment to the BRICS spirit featuring mutual respect and understanding, equality, solidarity, openness, inclusiveness, and consensus.”
In addition, the Ministerial Meeting reaffirmed the commitment of the member states to participate in the construction of a multilateral world.
The Ministers reiterated their commitment to multilateralism and upholding the international law, including the Purposes and Principles enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations (UN) as its indispensable cornerstone, and the central role of the UN in an international system in which sovereign states cooperate to maintain international peace and security, advance sustainable development, ensure the promotion and protection of democracy, human rights and fundamental freedoms for all, and promoting cooperation based on solidarity, mutual respect, justice and equality.
It should be noted that such proclamations are sometimes made by the imperialist powers, but without serious intent or reflection on their meaning and implications. One of the important characteristics of the people’s revolutions of the Global South in the last 100 years has been their tendency to embrace the principles and concepts of the West and to demand their practical implementation, while also expanding and deepening their meaning from the point of view of the colonial situation.
The need for reform of international structures and institutions is expressed repeatedly in the Statement. First, it reiterates the commitment of the foreign ministers of the ten BRICS states “to enhancing and improving global governance by promoting a more agile, effective, efficient, responsive, representative, legitimate, democratic and accountable international and multilateral system and to assuring greater and more meaningful participation of developing and least developed countries, especially in Africa, in global decision-making processes and structures, and making them better attuned to contemporary realities.”
Secondly, the Statement notes that the Ministers expressed support for a comprehensive reform of the United Nations, with the intention of making it more democratic and representative. It calls for an increase in the representation of developing countries on the UN Security Council, so that the Council “can adequately respond to prevailing global challenges and support the legitimate aspirations of emerging and developing countries from Africa, Asia and Latin America, including BRICS countries, to play a greater role in international affairs.”
Thirdly, the Joint Statement calls for reform of the World Trade Organization, envisioning “an open, transparent, fair, inclusive, equitable, non-discriminatory and rules-based multilateral trading system.” It maintains that said WTO reform ought “to be achieved through member-driven, inclusive, and transparent negotiations.”
Fourth, the Statement declares that “the Ministers recognized the need for a comprehensive reform of the global financial architecture to enhance the voice of the developing countries and their representation in the international financial institutions.” They called for continuation of the reform of IMF governance, leading to “a strong quota-based and adequately resourced International Monetary Fund.” (The IMF’s financial resources come mostly from quotas assigned to member countries on the basis of the size of their economy. A reform in 2008 involved the use of a new quota formula that was less disadvantageous to the nations of the Global South).
In this vein, the Joint Statement stresses the importance of the enhanced use of local currencies in trade and financial transactions among BRICS countries. It reaffirms the call of the BRICS 2023 Johannesburg II Declaration to finance ministers and central bank directors of BRICS countries to develop a report on the question of local currency payments and alternative payment instruments and platforms.
Fifth, the Statement asserts that “the Ministers stressed the need for reforming the policies and practices of multilateral development banks (MDBs) to increase their lending capacities, to be able to better assist developing countries in financing their development needs.” In addition, they agreed to develop the New Development Bank into “a new type of Multilateral Development Bank for the 21st century.” (The New Development Bank was established by BRICS in 2015).
In accordance with the orientation of BRICS to develop a post-colonial world order, the Joint Statement addresses the global political issues that are at stake with respect to so-called critical energy transition minerals—copper, lithium, nickel, cobalt and rare earth elements. “The rush for these minerals, which are mostly found in the developing world, should not replicate the previous injustice and inhumane history of colonialism.” The extraction and use of the minerals ought to be beneficial for the development and socioeconomic wellbeing of the countries where they are found.
In their reiterated calls for South-South cooperation since the 1950s, put into practice step-by-step in the twenty-first century, the nations of the Third World have never renounced North-South cooperation. To the contrary, they have repeatedly called the nations of the North to mutually beneficial trade with them based in respect for their sovereignty, and they have convoked what they call a dialogue of civilizations. In this spirit, the Joint Statement of the Nizhny Novgorod Ministerial Meeting reaffirmed “the important role of the G20 as the premier forum for international economic cooperation that comprises both developed and developing countries on an equal and mutually beneficial footing where major economies jointly seek solutions to global challenges to the achievement of universally beneficial and inclusive global economic growth.” It calls upon the G20 to continue to enhance the effective inclusion of the voice of the Global South.
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BRICS Partner Countries
The Joint Statement of the Ministerial Meeting recognizes “the considerable interest of emerging markets and developing countries in joining BRICS.” The ministers further discussed at the Meeting the so-called partner country model, which was discussed at the 2023 Summit in Johannesburg, where the foreign ministers of the BRICS countries were given the task of preparing a report on the BRICS partner country model for the 2024 Summit, to be held later this year.
As an indication of movement toward the inclusion of more countries in BRICS and/or the inclusion of partner countries, twelve countries participated as invited countries in the Nizhny Novgorod Ministerial Meeting, namely, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, Cuba, Kazakhstan, Laos, Mauritania, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Türkiye, Venezuela, and Vietnam.
Following the completion of the two-day ministerial meeting, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov declared to the media that the 12 invited countries expressed their firm commitment to forging closer ties with BRICS. He observed that delegations from the ten BRICS member countries plus the twelve invited countries all “spoke out in favor of reforming the existing global governance framework by focusing on enabling the Global South to play a bigger role.” He further observed that the twenty-two countries “share the view that the United States and its allies have been undermining the global financial and economic architecture in their attempt to preserve their dominance by grossly abusing the dollar’s global standing.”
In his address to the Ministerial Meeting, the Russian Foreign Minister had declared that the expansion of BRICS is a “clear confirmation of the process of formation of a multipolar world order.” He observed that "new centers for making globally significant political decisions are emerging from among the states of the Global South and East, from the states of the World Majority. These countries advocate a more just way of life based on the sovereign equality of states and civilizational diversity."
Lavrov further observed that the United States and its allies are attempting to “slow down the objective processes of the formation of multipolarity” through the utilization of economic instruments as weapons. They use sanctions and financial blackmail to try to influence the development decisions and the trading partners of sovereign states. They “impose norms and mechanisms of interaction that are beneficial only to them.” In contrast, the key countries of the Global Majority stand for “a more just way of life based on the sovereign equality of states and civilizational diversity” and for “a more equitable world order based on the sovereign equality of states.”
Lavrov concludes, “there is no alternative to undertaking consistent efforts designed to support the emergence of a multipolar world order based on the sovereign equality of states as set forth in the UN Charter, as well as an equitable interstate dialogue free from any hidden agendas and aimed at coming up with collective solutions for addressing the objectives and issues the world faces today.”
Bruno Rodríguez, Cuban Minister of Foreign Relations, spoke at the BRICS Ministerial Meeting of the significance of the emergence and consolidation of BRICS for the historic claims of the Global South. He declared:
The Group represents more than 45% of the world's population and a third of the planet's GDP. It is consolidating itself as a key player in global geopolitics, with growing relevance on a planetary scale, providing hope for the countries of the South in their construction of a more just, equitable and sustainable multilateral international order. The world is in urgent need of a new civilized coexistence where solidarity, cooperation and integration among States prevail. BRICS can make a significant contribution to this historic claim of the South, especially with respect to the road of necessary reform of the current deeply unjust, undemocratic, speculative and exclusionary international financial system.
In his remarks, Rodriguez gave particular emphasis to the importance of the BRICS New Development Bank and the expansion of membership in the Bank, which would permit the nations of the South to have access to financial resources under favorable conditions, enabling them to mobilize national resources for development. He observed that the establishment of a mechanism for an ample reserve of foreign currencies would guarantee the security and the stability of the countries of the South, and it would be an important contribution to the formation of a new and inclusive international financial architecture. And it would weaken the capacity of the international monetary system to utilize the U.S. dollar as an instrument of pressure.
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Final considerations
Some Western commentators initially interpreted BRICS as a strategy of ascent by the strongest of the developing economies. But from its origin, BRICS contained the seeds of structural transformation, in solidarity with the Great Majority, as the necessary foundation for the common prosperity and security of all, an insight rooted in the vantage point of the neocolonial situation.
A new, more just, prosperous, and peaceful world is on the horizon. The peoples of the Global South and East are declaring it so, in unified political practice. Meanwhile, the West falls further and further into economic, political, and moral decadence, thereby accelerating the political process of transformation from the South and East.
A new generation of Western leaders, formed in the art of listening to the voices from below, is convoked by the nations and peoples of the Global South and East.
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