By Bhargav Acharya, JOHANNESBURG
South Africa
Leaders of the BRICS nations - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - converged on Johannesburg on Tuesday for a summit where they will weigh expanding the bloc as some members push to forge it into a counterweight to the West.
Heightened global tensions
provoked by the Ukraine war and a growing rivalry between China and the United
States have added urgency to a drive to strengthen the bloc, which has at times
suffered from internal divisions and a lack of coherent vision.
South Africa hosted China's Xi
Jinping, the leading proponent of enlarging BRICS, for a state visit on Tuesday
morning ahead of meetings with the grouping's other leaders later in the day.
Sitting beside Xi, South
African President Cyril Ramaphosa said that the two countries had "similar
views" regarding expansion.
"We share your view
President Xi that BRICS is a vitally important forum which plays an important
role in the reform of global governance and in the promotion of multilateralism
and cooperation throughout the world," he said.
Brazil's Luiz Inacio Lula da
Silva and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi are also attending the Aug. 22 to
24 summit.
Russian President Vladimir
Putin, wanted under an international arrest warrant for alleged war crimes in
Ukraine, will not travel to South Africa and instead join virtually.
"I am confident that the
upcoming summit will be an important milestone in the development of the BRICS
mechanism," Xi said shortly after his arrival in South Africa.
Beyond the enlargement
question, boosting the use of member states' local
currencies is also on the summit agenda. South African organisers,
however, say there will be no discussions of a BRICS currency, an idea floated
by Brazil earlier this year as an alternative to dollar-dependence.
BRICS remains a disparate
group, ranging from China, the world's second biggest economy now grappling
with a slowdown, to South Africa, this year's host and an economic minnow
facing a power crisis that's led to daily blackouts.
India has increasingly reached
out to the West, as has Brazil under its new leader, while Russia is being
hammered by Western sanctions over it war in Ukraine.
Two members - India and China
- have periodically clashed along their disputed border, adding to the
challenge of decision-making in a group that relies on consensus.
Expansion has long been a goal
of China, which hopes that broader membership will lend clout to a grouping
already home to some 40% of the world's population and a quarter of global GDP.
The leaders will hold a
mini-retreat and dinner on Tuesday evening where they are likely to discuss a
framework and criteria for admitting new countries.
But expansion has become a
point of contention.
Russia is keen to bring in new
members to counter its diplomatic isolation over its invasion of Ukraine.
India, which is wary of
Chinese dominance and has warned against rushing expansion, has "positive
intent and an open mind", Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra said on
Monday. Brazil, meanwhile, is concerned that expanding
BRICS will dilute its influence.
While a potential BRICS
enlargement remains up in the air, the bloc's pledge to become a champion of
the developing "Global South" and offer an alternative to a world
order dominated by wealthy Western nations is already finding resonance.
Over
40 countries have expressed interest in joining BRICS, say South
African officials. Of them, nearly two dozen have formally asked to be
admitted, with some expected to send delegations to Johannesburg.
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