Former Goldman Sachs Chief economist Jim O’Neill is credited with coining the acronym BRICS to describe the building block which has grown from an original four countries, Brazil, Russia, India, China and later, joined by South Africa, from the initials of which, he gave it the name.
This was a few years ago, it was very definitely a group of emerging economies but all that has changed. Russia is back in the top 10 global economies with some reports, even a begrudging BBC article, conceding there are reports of it surging ahead of several European economies, the same European economies that are sanctioning Russia. India is the fastest growing in the world, much of this being thanks to those same sanctions which is it helping Russia to circumvent. Africa is home to several of the fastest growing economies in the world and Ethiopia, a new BRICS member is the fastest of them all.
Media states that over 20 countries attended the Summit in Kazan but doesn’t actually mention that there were in fact 36 countries in attendance but over 20 of them sent their leaders. Making BRICS, for the first time ever, more important globally than the G7 and the G20. It now includes well over 40% of the global population and, if new members are added, this will increase to cover half the world. Neither does any media mention that King Charles was hosting a Commonwealth meeting in Samoa, in the South Pacific while two of the Commonwealth’s most important leaders, South Africa and India were on the other side of the world chatting with Putin.
In the classic way in which the BBC trivialises this kind of information and provides misinformation to its consumers, Jim O’Neill is quoted as being a critic of the group, “like minded” is not a word we can use to describe them he’s noted as saying and “In some ways it’s a good job for the West that China and India can never agree about anything. Because if those two were really serious, Brics would have enormous influence,” is another quote.
Except that, in stunning lack of journalistic integrity, the BBC has absolutely no mention anywhere that China and India have actually agreed on something integral to both countries, they are reopening discussions, they have both pulled back from conflict and are looking for a solution to a problem the British caused over 100 years ago, the long running border dispute. Reuters, to give credit where it’s due, reported the matter in a short article^ entitled “China confirms pact to border conflict. It seems, despite Western media’s inference that China is isolated, India won’t talk to it and Russia has no friends, quite the opposite is true.
The BBC search engine, if we decided to take a look for BRICS, does not reveal any article in recent days with the acronym BRICS in a headline. A search, on the day after the BRICS summit concluded, requires us to scroll down to the 5th entry where there’s an article about Putin, the word BRICS does not appear in the headline and the article is, of course, critical of Putin for attempting to “gather allies to show West’s pressure isn’t working”.
India is the fastest growing economy and the world’s largest democracy, it’s a country the West calls “like minded” but is currently disparaging at every opportunity. Over internal human rights issues issues, external issues with the recent murder of an opposition leader in Canada and the attempted murder of another in the USA both being attributed to the Indian government. Rather than highlight these issues separating the “like minded democracies” it prefers to dwell on an old border problem that was caused by the British over 100 years ago and has reached a stage where both parties agree, they want a resolution. Apparently, the Beeb, feels much better highlighting this as an ongoing thorn, rather than a very positive outcome.
BRICS, far from being, as the NYTimes likes to say a “so called BRICS group” is in fact a group of some significance.
In another sparkling example of Western media misinformation, China, is believed by many consumers of this misinformation to be a slowing economy, in fact, it’s still growing at twice the rate of the United States, it’s blitzing other major economies such as Germany, Japan and the UK and, at a projected 5%, it’s 10 times higher than Australia is forecast to be for this year
How China continues to grow in the face of all the restrictions placed on it by the USA and its allies is simple, it’s changed the market and it’s BRICS, as well as BRI which is responsible for this change.
David P Goldman of the Asia Times points out in a Twitter post that China is developing the Global South as a new market, this is not a surprise, this is a long held strategy. For years President Xi has been talking about global development, China has even presented this at the United Nations and this in itself is a nod to BRICS.
Reading the Kazan Declaration it’s very clear to see what BRICS is all about – this isn’t about an Anti-West, or anti-Dollar organisation, it’s not about poking the US in the eye, despite inviting Venezuela to the Summit and adding Iran to the list of members and confirming Cuba as a new partner nation, it’s about adhering to the UN Charter and most importantly, it’s about removing barriers to global impoverishment. For some reason, Western media seems to think this is not a great idea. However, more than half the world’s population seems to think it might be; probably because they don’t watch the BBC!
Take a look at the Kazan declaration, see what’s really happening under Russia’s leadership; it’s 18 pages long but well worth a read.