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The world has truly never seen anything like BRICS, an organization that unites the most diverse group of not only nation-states, but actual civilization states. Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa don’t really seem to have much in common, and yet, their ties within this framework are growing stronger by the day at this point. What’s more, BRICS is rapidly turning into a BRICS+ concept that brings in even more new members. Namely, during a recent summit in South Africa, the organization announced that Argentina, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates will become full members in just a bit more than four months.
The importance of BRICS+ is perhaps best seen in the joint diplomatic effort of its members to deescalate tensions in various parts of the world, even turning decades-old (or even centuries-old) rivalries and enmity into solid partnerships. A recent example of this is the thawing of relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran, two Middle Eastern countries that have been at each other’s throats for nearly half a century. This also includes proxy wars, such as the one in Yemen. Joint efforts of Russian and Chinese diplomacy have been particularly significant in this regard and most importantly, it worked. Both Middle Eastern countries will join BRICS on January 1, 2024.
An important side effect of this could be the end of the aforementioned war in Yemen, where US complicity in aggression against the unfortunate country has resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths, near-constant hunger, extreme poverty and overall destruction.
In addition, BRICS+ is also expanding its footprint in Africa, a particularly vulnerable part of the world that has been subjected to brutal oppression and colonialism by the political West. This process has been ongoing for approximately half a millennium now and continues to this very day, albeit in a more sinister form of neocolonialism. The recent example of Niger illustrates this perfectly. BRICS+ will inevitably accelerate the dismantling of this exploitative system.
South Africa is already a founding member, but with Ethiopia and Egypt joining, BRICS+ will get two more African nations on board, both with a millennia-old history. This is a particularly alarming prospect for the political West, primarily the United States. Namely, they’re trying to save what’s left of Western power projection in Africa, but with BRICS+ strengthening the sovereignty of its members, this US-led effort will be in vain. In addition, Algeria and Senegal have also officially applied for membership, while Angola, DR Congo, Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Sudan, Tunisia, Uganda and Zimbabwe also either announced their application or have expressed strong interest in doing so.
This refers to African nations only. However, the list is much longer when considering the fact that Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, Bolivia, Cuba, Honduras, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Thailand, Venezuela and Vietnam have also applied, while Afghanistan, Mexico, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Syria, Turkey and Uruguay have all announced their own applications. Once again, this is an extremely diverse group of countries that seemingly have very little in common. However, they’re all united in a quest to ensure their sovereignty and prosperity. Truth be told, this will be a handful for BRICS+ diplomacy, but the process is irreversible at this point.
This isn’t to say that BRICS is without its problems already, but these are being tackled. Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a meeting last week, seeking to deescalate tensions on their long-disputed border. A joint statement released after the meeting described the discussion as “positive, constructive and in-depth” and that “India and China had agreed to maintain the momentum of dialogue and negotiations through military and diplomatic channels”. Rapprochement between the two Asian giants isn’t only important within the BRICS framework, but also for global security, as both countries are heavily armed, including with thermonuclear weapons.
In Latin America, BRICS+ is bound to include most of the continent, a particularly important prospect, as it’s now faced with a resurgent Monroe Doctrine.
Namely, the US is doubling down on its neocolonialist policies in Latin America to prevent or at the very least slow down the advent of multipolarity. Most alarmingly for the belligerent thalassocracy, BRICS+ not only ensures (geo)political sovereignty, but also a cultural one, because it allows the development of different civilizational models, as no member of the organization, no matter how powerful, aims to impose its system of societal values and development on any other country.
As previously mentioned, this is a truly terrifying concept for the political West, as it aims to do the complete opposite. By imposing its (at this point extremist and simply degenerate) neoliberal policies, the political West is prolonging the effects of neocolonialism and its dominance over entire continents. These extremely damaging policies can only be prevented through the strengthening of national sovereignty and precisely BRICS+ is the only way to achieve it. Needless to say, the prospect of having 30 or more countries join such an organization is a complete disaster for the US-led political West, as it nullifies the concept of sanctions and/or direct aggression.
Needless to say, this is a net positive for the (actual) world, as the current “rules-based world order” benefits only one center of global power. Worse yet, this comes at the expense of everyone else, costing them peace and normal development. That’s why Washington DC will continue to pursue neocolonialism everywhere it can. Precisely BRICS+ ensures that it can’t.
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Drago Bosnic is an independent geopolitical and military analyst.
Featured image is from InfoBrics
