What the BRICS group of emerging market powers is aiming to do, is promote the interests of the developing world and isn’t in competition with any other bloc.
At a conference at Bloomberg’s Johannesburg office on Monday, Anil Sooklal who is South Africa’s ambassador to BRICS, “There’s an unfortunate narrative being developed that BRICS is anti-West, that BRICS was created as competition to the G7 or the Global North, and that is incorrect,”
Sooklal said they seek to advance the agenda of the Global South and to build a more inclusive, representative, just, fair global architecture.
Comprising of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, BRICS is set to host its annual summit next week in Johannesburg, where leaders will discuss whether to admit more nations to its ranks. Sooklal revealed that forty heads of state and government have confirmed their attendance, and that number could rise to about 50.
Sooklal’s comments after ones that were made by South Africa’s Foreign Minister, Naledi Pandor, when she said: “I don’t think we see BRICS as being pro-Russia or anti-Western. I think that would be extremely wrong.” Talking to journalists at an online briefing Monday, she said: “We have said many times before that South Africa’s trading partners in the West are very important to South Africa’s economic progress,”
Africa’s most industrialized nation’s biggest trading partners are China and the US. The nation has been feeling pressure from the latter to stop using Huawei in its mobile networks as Washington’s fight to suppress China’s technology ambitions escalates. The United States has also criticized South Africa over its non-aligned stance toward Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Pandor said heads of state from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa will set out strict criteria for who will be allowed to join the bloc when they meet Aug. 22-24.
Twenty-two nations have asked formally to become full-time members of the group, and more than 20 others have submitted informal requests.
