Named the main interests of Xi Jinping at the BRICS summit: there were disagreements

The group of countries known as the BRICS – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – represent 40 percent of the world’s population and a quarter of the global economy. Now it is considering expanding, aiming to be a credible counterbalance to Western-led forums such as the G7 group of developed countries.

But, The New York Times notes, the problem for the club is that it is as diverse as it is big, and sometimes hampered by conflicting interests and internal rivalries. According to the American edition, China under Xi Jinping wants to expand the BRICS, seeing it as a platform to challenge American power. Russia is keen to demonstrate that Moscow has loyal allies, despite its isolation from the West due to the conflict in Ukraine. India, embroiled in a territorial dispute with China, is wary of Beijing’s dominance of the club. Brazil and South Africa, other swing states in the developing world, want good relations with China and Russia, but not get too close to either country for fear of alienating the United States.

How the participants in the Johannesburg summit bridge these differences could determine whether the BRICS will become a geopolitical coalition or remain primarily focused on financial issues, such as reducing the dollar’s dominance in the global economy, writes The New York Times.

The task of finding common ground only becomes more difficult as the great power rivalry between Beijing and Washington intensifies, putting pressure on other countries to take sides.

“China under Xi Jinping is looking to use the BRICS for its own purposes, especially to expand its influence in the Global South,” said Steve Tsang, director of the SOAS China Institute in London. “It is unlikely that India will agree to this, since the Chinese proposal will turn the BRICS into something else that will serve primarily Chinese interests.”

Dozens of countries have expressed interest in joining the club, The New York Times notes. These include Iran and Belarus, Egypt and Kazakhstan. The question of enlargement will be at the top of the agenda of the three-day summit.

China, which wields significant influence as the group’s largest economy, will want to use the club to show that Beijing has its own circle of influence after President Biden held a summit last week to strengthen alliances with Japan and South Korea, countries in the backyard of China.

According to The New York Times, India has signaled that it prefers a more cautious approach that would limit Beijing’s ability to use the BRICS to counter the West. It will want to avoid diluting its own role in favor of countries that might choose China over India in any power struggle. New Delhi’s divergence with Beijing reflects growing tensions and distrust between the two countries, which were exacerbated by a deadly 2020 border clash and India’s involvement in a security tally with the United States, Japan and Australia called the Quad. India stressed that it is open in principle to the expansion of the BRICS, but wants to develop standards for deciding on new members and ensure that any changes are based on consensus.

Brazil takes a similar position regarding the admission of new members. “If they comply with the rules we set, we will allow them to join,” Brazilian President Lula told reporters this month. Brazil wants BRICS to remain a club of large emerging economies, not a geopolitical alliance that could be seen as an anti-Western bloc, according to a Brazilian source who helped plan the talks. President Lula has said he supports at least three countries joining the BRICS: Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Argentina. He also suggested that Indonesia, by all accounts a perfect fit given its size and location, would be a welcome addition.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping traveled to South Africa on Monday on a trip aimed at bolstering Beijing’s influence among developing countries at a time when ties with the United States remain deeply strained, CNN notes.

The three-day state visit, which also includes a summit with BRICS emerging-economy leaders, is only Xi Jinping’s second international trip this year. The Chinese leader last left the country in March to meet with President Putin in Moscow, where the two leaders reaffirmed their strategic alignment with the US and shared their vision for a new world order that is no longer dominated by the West.

For Xi Jinping, the first face-to-face BRICS summit since the pandemic represents another opportunity to advance this vision, CNN stresses.

“Xi Jinping is not trying to outdo America in the current US-dominated liberal international order. Its long-term goal is to change the world order to a China-centric one,” said Steve Tsang, director of the China SOAS Institute at the University of London.

In anticipation of Xi Jinping’s visit on Friday, Chinese Ambassador to South Africa Chen Xiaodong hailed the BRICS as “an important platform for cooperation between emerging market and developing countries” and “the foundation of international fairness and justice.”

“The traditional system of global governance appears to be broken, dysfunctional and missing. The international community looks forward to the BRICS… playing a leading role,” Chen told reporters.

Xi Jinping’s trip to South Africa comes just days after US President Joe Biden met with the leaders of Japan and South Korea in solidarity and strength against what they see as growing threats from Beijing. At the Camp Davis summit, the US and its two closest allies in Asia deepened military and economic cooperation – and criticized China’s “dangerous and aggressive behavior” in the South China Sea.

With the growing rivalry between China and the United States, BRICS is becoming increasingly strategic for Beijing, according to Paul Nantoul, a researcher at the African Center for Strategic Studies. “Xi Jinping will be the focus of the BRICS summit given that Vladimir Putin will not be attending in person,” he said.

As CNN recalls, the Russian president will attend the Johannesburg summit via video link from Russia. Chinese President Xi Jinping, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa will personally attend the meeting.

The visit is Xi Jinping’s first trip to Africa in five years. His latest trip to the continent – ​​also to the BRICS summit in South Africa – in 2018 includes a series of visits to Senegal, Rwanda and Mauritius, covering nearly every corner of sub-Saharan Africa.

This time, Beijing did not announce any other destinations for Xi Jinping’s trip. The Chinese leader will co-chair a dialogue between the leaders of China and Africa with his South African counterpart, Cyril Ramaphosa, on the sidelines of the BRICS summit, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said. In total, 69 countries were invited to the summit, including all African states.