By Paul Jouvenet, jurist and essayist. Eurasia Business News, August 20, 2023

In two days, the XV BRICS leaders’ summit will begin, held this year in the city of Johannesburg in South Africa. The meeting will bring together not only heads of state, but also diplomats and a large business community: alongside geopolitical issues, it is planned to discuss a wide range of economic cooperation. Representatives of 34 States have confirmed their participation. One of the main questions is which states will join the BRICS community in the near future and what announcements will be made regarding the financial and monetary system promoted by the BRICS.

BRICS leaders and BRICS partners will gather for the XV summit starting August 22 in the city of Johannesburg. The meetings of representatives of the largest association of emerging countries will last three days, until August 24. Representatives of 34 countries of the South, including Iran, Argentina, Turkey, Algeria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Belarus, have already confirmed their participation in the summit.

On the sidelines of the political summit, a number of business events are planned with the participation of representatives from South Africa and the BRICS countries, as well as the BRICS Development Bank, an institution headed by Brazil’s Dilma Rousseff, who is close to Brazilian President Lula Da Silva. The XV Summit will be held at Johannesburg’s main business venue – in the Sandton Exhibition Centre.

The Summit Programme

The slogan of the XV Summit is “BRICS and Africa: Partnership for Mutual Acceleration of Growth, Sustainable Development and Inclusive Multilateralism“. Officially, the agenda of the meetings has not yet been presented, but it has already been indicated that the central themes of the summit will be the criteria for joining the BRICS, as well as the strengthening of member states’ local currencies against the dollar and the development of a common payment system alternative to the SWIFT system.

On April 13, during his first state visit to China since taking office in January, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva proposed choosing an alternative currency to the dollar for trade among BRICS countries.

Lula da Silva said that other countries could be more active in using their own currencies in trade, without using the dollar.

The BRICS are striving to promote cooperation and coordination on economic and financial issues and since 2022 monetary issues.

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« Who decided that it was the dollar that would become the currency for settlements after gold? Why not the yen, why not the real one, why not the peso? Because in the past, our currencies were weak and had no value in other countries,” he said.

Earlier, Brazil’s Central Bank announced the signing of an agreement with China’s central bank on the direct conversion of the two countries’ currencies in commercial transactions, without the mediation of the dollar.

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Surfing on the movement of de-dollarization and questioning the hegemony of the dollar, President Lula wants to create a common currency to promote trade in Latin America. This expected currency, the SUR (“the South”) is not intended to replace the currencies of Latin American countries. It would complement the trade and financial flows of the subcontinent.

The formation of a new, more just and balanced world order that offers the world’s states many opportunities for cooperation on a variety of issues is the main objective of the BRICS, which the participants have been affirming for several years and which they are gradually approaching. The BRICS promote multipolarity, which they consider to be in conformity with the principle of multilateralism enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations of June 26, 1945.

The BRICS seek to strengthen ties, share experiences and promote economic development models tailored to the unique challenges and opportunities of emerging and developing economies. The Western model promoted by the IMF has left bad memories for many states. Many African countries, as well as countries in Latin America and the Middle East, wanted to join the BRICS bloc in the hope of freeing themselves from the influence of the G7.

Cooperation among BRICS member countries brings tangible benefits to South Africa through projects in key areas: science, innovation, energy, health and education. The partnership has a positive effect on infrastructure development, trade and investment in Africa, as well as tourism opportunities.

The BRICS could be the G7 of emerging countries and the South Global and change the world order by promoting multipolarity and multilateralism. The most important is not the expansion of the BRICS, but the growing influence of the group’s decisions on the global economy and the strengthening of its voice in the international financial arena, thanks in particular to the New Development Bank established in 2015, facing the IMF and the World Bank. The BRICS bank has already financed 98 infrastructure development projects worth a total of $33 billion since 2015. The attractiveness of the BRICS as a “balancing force in world affairs” is now at an unprecedented level.

By 2030, the BRICS could together account for 50% of global GDP.

Among the 34 countries whose delegations will be present at the XV BRICS summit are the top regional leaders of the continents. These are Argentina, Venezuela and Bolivia for South America. The leaders of Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Iran will come to represent the major powers of the Middle East. In addition to Egypt and Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Senegal and Ethiopia will be represented. In addition to India and China, founding members of the BRICS, Asia will be represented by Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand and Fiji. A UN delegation also confirmed its participation in the event, said Deputy Spokesman for UN Secretary-General Farhan Haq.

Read also : Brazil’s President Supports BRICS Expansion

Russia, a founding member of the BRICS, will be represented at this XV summit by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov (he will come to the meeting in person) and President Vladimir Putin, who will participate in the summit by video conference. For the first time, a delegation from Belarus will attend the event.

French President Emmanuel Macron, who had repeatedly expressed a desire to attend the BRICS summit, did not receive an invitation.

Many candidates for accession

Iran, Argentina and Algeria have applied to join the bloc in 2022, and over the past year, BRICS membership applications have been announced by about 20 other countries – the most important regional players on all continents. Among the candidate countries are members of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), namely Belarus and Kazakhstan, states close to Russia and China. Bolivia and Venezuela are also ready to join the BRICS. However, no one knows yet which countries will join the BRICS in 2023 or 2024.

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© Copyright 2023 – Paul Jouvenet, jurist and essayist.