The strength of BRICS lies in its membership. The greater the number of countries joining BRICS, the stronger and more influential will be BRICS to serve the interests of its members. BRICS is seen as an alternative to the western world and their pro western organisations, as an option for the rest of the world to break away from the bullying and stranglehold of the American dominated world order. BRICS is the way to freedom from American threats, sanctions and the abuses of the dollar primacy system.
Given these concerns and backgrounds, BRICS' main priority is to admit as many members as it could attract, unlike the last meeting in South Africa when only 6 countries were admitted. From the grapevines, it seems that BRICS is having a very serious internal problem with one particular member abusing its position to stall the admission of more new members. Just because of this rogue member, BRICS is now held hostage, unable to move forward to admit all the members it wants, to turn it into a force to compete with American controlled organisations like G7, World Bank, IMF and the UN.
It is so sad that a promising organisation like BRICS that the countries of the Global South are pinning their hopes on to lift them out of poverty, to freedom from American oppression and hegemony but now unable to do so.
It is paramount that the existing members of BRICS that share the same vision, motivation and goal, should stand together to push forward their objectives and agenda despite the objection of a rogue member. If needed be, BRICS should do the necessary, cut off the tumour immediately. It may be painful and hurting but for once and for a short while. BRICS can then pick up itself and steam ahead without this internal trouble maker that is obstructing the progress of BRICS.
Very likely this rogue member would be left out in the lurch even by the American and western camp as they would not trust such a difficult member that only thinks of its own interests and not the interests of all the members of an organisation. BRICS must make a decision fast and now before the main meeting in Kazan in October. The cancer if not removed, would always be a problem to BRICS and hinder its progress in the long run and can derail whatever BRICS want to do. Better severe the tie right now and free itself from a persistent and troublesome member than to be crippled and becomes irrelevant even before it gets started.
BRICS must bring in as many members as possible, as soon as possible, or it will disappoint potential members and loses its credibility and the hope of countries of the Global South. The Americans and the West are pulling all their weights to get this rogue member to pin down BRICS at all costs. Without getting rid of this rogue member, this member would gain strength by influencing more members to form an opposing camp to obstruct the growth of BRICS. BRICS would turn out as a still birth baby, a great misfortune and missed opportunity for the Global South to unite and chart their fortunes together.
Killing one sick member is worth the pain that is likely to be short and temporary. Look ahead to a better future with a membership that shares the same goals and wanted to move along for common prosperity, without the presence of a treacherous traitor in their midst. This is a critical decision that the BRICS members have to make immediately.
BRICS stands for - 'Be Realistic In Choosing Sides' which is some advice for those not yet decided on joining BRICS. For those running the show in BRICS, I would even say that choosing members that are trustworthy is just as important and not in a carefree manner. Choosing wrongly and admitting a 'Trojan Horse' will destroy the whole ideal. That is BRICS dilemma with regard to India today.
ReplyDeleteIndia wants to have the cake and eat it. It wants to benefit both ways. Having no realistic clout, it still wants to show it is calling the shots, just to boost its fake ego by blocking membership expansion. What does those who aspire to join BRICS think of India? Certainly not positive at all! Thus, it is derailing all the efforts that others in BRICS are striving to uphold by admitting more members into the bloc to make it stronger.
India is a fringe player in BRICS. Not a big and important player in energy, not a manufacturing hub, not an innovation hub, not excelling in cutting edge technology or even in infrastructure development. The only thing that India has is its population explosion, that is being hyped up by Western sources as another big consumer market to rival China. India is thus thinking it will provide a big consumer market for other Global South countries. In truth, that is not realistic an expectation for the near future, the next decade or so, as India is still a poor country with little consumer demand capacity compared to China.
Even then, what demand that is coming up over the next decade or two is going to be geared towards benefitting local Indian manufacturing before opening up to the rest of the Global South. Right now, we have seen how India is preventing Chinese products from accessing the country. Handphones, computers and EVs have all been curtailed.
India is NOTHING, just a venomous snake. No loss with its axing.
DeleteSour grapes as cannot join BRICS?
ReplyDeleteEven though several South-east Asian countries have expressed interest in joining the Brics economic bloc, there is no substitute for Asean, said Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan in a media interview on June 26.
Singapore can never join BRICS because Russia would veto it for following the West in sanctioning them and also avoid showing US it is close to US main competitor grouping.
DeleteSomeday when almost all Asean members are BRICS members, Singapore and Philippines would be left in the dust.
PM Modi snubs SCO summit
ReplyDeletePrime Minister Narendra Modi has decided to skip the annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Astana next week.
The SCO summit to be held on July 3 and 4 is expected to focus on the regional security situation and ways to boost connectivity and trade.
While the Indian side has not officially stated the reasons for the prime minister’s decision to skip the summit, it is understood that the strained relations with China are among the factors that influenced the move.
The nine member states of the SCO are India, China, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
Sinkieland & Snakeland can create their own grouping call Cecapore. They could invite the pinoy, anoneh & kimchi to join...hahaha
ReplyDeleteModi staying away from SCO meeting in Astana, Kazakhstan, is a blessing in disguise for the group. They can get things done without hindrance. SCO must brush aside India's reason for staying away and treat it as trivial and immaterial for all intents and purposes.
ReplyDeleteIndia can even drop out of the SCO membership, and it will not a big loss to anyone. SCO and even BRICS must not be fooled by India's behavior. India is jealous of China's influence in the SCO, nothing more nothing less. It is acting strange, things that a 'Trojan Horse' will display to hinder the progress of SCO and BRICS as well.
Does India's snub going to achieve anything positive for India going forward? SCO should not disclose what they agreed upon in Astana to snub India back. The members of SCO could meet each other on the sidelines to talk about issues privately. That would not make it even necessary for individual countries private meetings to have to be revealed to India.
Having worked in a shipping agency, I heard the word 'anoneh' mentioned by boarding officers daily, not realizing it referred to Japanese sailors or Japanese in general.
ReplyDeleteFunny names like 'Hai Gong' were also used to refer to foreign sailors. Accidentally that is also the name of a vessel.
India wanted their Rupees to be used as the Main BRICs currency.
ReplyDeleteRussia even rejected theirs for buying their oil.
So they are Sore about it.
So have to throw their weight as one of the so called Founding Member.
Their Rupee had no clout.
Unlike the Russian Rubble and China's RMB.
Can use for BRICKS
Russia collected lots of Indian rupees selling hugh quantity of oil to India.
DeleteBut when it wanted to use these rupees to trade, it found India had nothing much to sell and rejected accepting back its own rupees in big quantity and also rupees had lost value against other currencies.
It is Ru...pee.
ReplyDeleteWhat can countries in BRICS do with rupees when India is unable to produce anything worthwhile exporting for others to use their currency? India must be able to export products that BRICS countries want to buy to enable the rupee to be used in two-way trade. And even then, India must produce products that can compete with the likes of China.
ReplyDeleteIndia can export its workers, it's co-called population dividends, to other countries and be paid in rupees, LOL. Singapore should pay Indian workers in rupees if it accepts exports to India to be paid in rupees.
Even Russia is not in favor of accepting rupees, with India exporting little to Russia while buying so much energy and military weapons from Russia. Russia needs all the money to fund its war in Ukraine, not rupees lying around and unable to be used for purchases from China or anyone else.
India must work to set up channels to facilitate the acceptance of the rupee first before trying to force other countries to conform to its wishes. It is not going to work. Putting the cart before the horse is not going to move anything around.
Asean would soon become America's NATO in SE Asia. The American cronies are working very hard to undermine Asean as a neutral organisation.
ReplyDeleteIf BRICS does not get rid of its cancer, it will be a fatal mistake. There is no time to waste.
ReplyDeleteIndia is not USA, given the advantage of being allowed by the oil producers to price oil in US$. That move by the USA forced all countries to accumulate US$ for purchase of oil and gives the USA the privilege of printing unlimited piles of toilet papers that the world needs to hold. The importance of oil today shows how big an effect that arrangement has benefited the USA for five decades. It is however ending, with Saudi Arabia ending the 50- year pact with the USA and now pricing its oil in other currencies as well.
ReplyDeleteKnowing the US$ hegemony is ending sooner or later, the USA is spending like no tomorrow and printing toilet papers furiously, making hay while the sun shines. But as demand for treasuries are falling to enable the Fed to print at will, it is reported by some sources, not officially of course, that the USA Treasury itself had stealthily been forced to buy back its own treasuries. That is how bad the situation is. Janet Yellen can yell until she loses her voice, but not many are listening and buying treasuries. The two top foreign buyers, China and Japan, have been selling treasuries instead of buying. Even the Fed is not buying.
With Japan fighting a furious battle to prop up the Yen, the indications are that Japan will have to sell off the bulk of its treasury holdings, which will cause Janet Yellen coming out to warn Japan strongly again not to go overboard, with threats of consequences as usual. Japan is now caught between a rock and a hard place. Japan is paralyzed, impotent, and sliding further into oblivion. Revised data showed that Japan's economy slid further with a 2.9% contraction in the first quarter of 2024.
India could follow the USA by insisting that its most valuable export, which are CECA workers, be paid in Rupees to create a demand for Rupees. Singapore, Japan and others can then accumulate more Rupees to pay Indian workers, LOL. Japan ought to accumulate more rupees instead as the Yen is doing even worse than the Rupee.