It is time to take BRICS seriously

April 4, 2025

Thank you for Paul Keating’s article. For me, I wonder, can I buy from Australia’s Antarctic Program a robotic penguin made in Heard Island, now subject to Trump’s new tariff on electrical and mechanical equipment from that place? But seriously, he is quoted saying today in The Guardian that he now expects other nations will come crawling to him. That is not a successful approach to a bully. By the way, has Trump actually formally withdrawn the US from the WTO, which would seem to be a prerequisite to his announcement on tariffs yesterday?

A very recent P and I article by Gareth Evans (Pursuing Australia’s national interests in a might is right world) recommended strengthening political and where possible military relationships with key regional neighbours. Two he listed are now members of BRICS+, and two others, Thailand and Malaysia, are associate members. He includes BRICS+ member China, but instead wants to concentrate its mind.

Trump has also threatened any country which adopts a BRICS+ currency with 100% tariffs. Nevertheless, BRICS+ now has a development bank, a satellite constellation, and the beginnings of a blockchain international currency, symbolised in a banknote shown in Kazan last year with the flags of 19 nations on it, some a little premature. Nevertheless, it is time we took BRICS+ seriously, with nine members or about to be members ringing the Indian Ocean. Did we have a diplomatic observer at the Kazan summit? Does our ambassador to China visit the BRICS+ HQ in Shanghai from time to time?