March 28, 2013 · 0 Comments
The V summit of BRICS under the motto «Partnership for development, integration and industrialization» took place in the city of Durban (South Africa) on March 26-27, 2013. Basing on its results, the leaders of the five states signed the eThekwini Declaration, which stressed the community of their positions on key international problems. What is China’s perception of this project, and what global sense does it put in it? Is it possible to say that for the PRC BRICS is one of the mechanisms of building a new, «non-American world»?
Chinese vision of BRICS. «A golden brick» or «an aspen stake» for imperialism?
In the Chinese version, BRICS is a «golden brick», which the Celestial Empire, apparently, wants to lay in the foundation of a new world order, both in terms of financial and international political architecture. For the sake of justice, we should note that other participants do not oppose this construction. The question is: What is the share and interests of every participant? Given the Chinese influence and its tendency to «come out of the shadows» in the sphere of international politics, China has the highest interest in expansion and strengthening of BRICS, although it does not openly declare this.
It is very likely that other participants see a more applied meaning in the project. South Africa and Brazil, for example, would like to more actively develop agriculture and biotechnology, India – pharmaceuticals, Russia – space and energy, and so on. Not denying specialization, China makes emphasis on general things – the necessity of developing a new, «non-American world», and BRICS should become its core. Chinese experts emphasize that it should not be G-8 or G-20, but exactly the «golden brick» that includes large developing countries, which are on the rise but were deprived by the global elite. Meanwhile, the Chinese do not deny cooperation with these structures.
In fact, BRICS allows China to formally change the traditional approach to the «third world» without changing its essence, i. e. always to be the leader of the developing countries. In the second half of the XX century, China used more revolutionary, ideological methods. At the present time, the BRICS format allows to officially defend the interests of the large developing countries and oppose the “financial domination of the West” and its structures (the WB and the IMF). Parallel to that, some of the important long-term tasks, which are reflected in the recent publications of the Chinese media, are being solved: preparation to the break-off with the dollar-based system, «insurance against financial crises» and others.
By the way, despite the outward attractiveness of the project, according to the calculations of some Chinese experts, the PRC needs about 25-30 years for the evolution of the format and its transformation from the «golden brick» in an «aspen stake» for the world dollar system.
A waiting list for an entry. Is an Islamic expansion of BRICSpossible?
The growing desire of a number of states to somehow join BRICS speaks in favor of the scenario of its further expansion. Such a desire is especially obvious in a group of Islamic countries. The first in the waiting list is the President of Egypt M. Mursi. In his interviews with international media, he regularly expresses hope that «one day BRICS will turn into E-BRICS, where the letter «E» will mean Egypt».
By the way, China was one of the first countries, which accepted and supported the new (Islamic) President, and signed with him a number of important investment and financial and economic documents in Beijing in 2012, including credits from China. In the framework of the summit, the Russian President also met with the Egyptian leader, and discussed with him a wide range of bilateral and regional issues.
Two other candidates are far away from each other geographically, but religiously they belong to the «Islamic zone»; this is Turkey and Indonesia. One more candidate for entering the organization is Mexico, which represents Latin America together with the «old-timer» of the project – Brazil.
In other words, in the long term BRICS represents a «slice» of our contradictory and diverse world, which includes strong and weak partners, large and small religions, different ways of life and civilizations.
Summing up the facts, which were voiced at the summit, one can assume that for China BRICS becomes a real mechanism of creating a «non-American world». But so far, in Beijing (and also in Moscow and other capitals of the countries-participants) they do not know exactly, what «driving belts» and «levers» will make it work effectively, and what the final version of this mechanism will look like. In any case, the importance of the project will grow for all the participants, but especially for China, which more and more loses touch with its partners.
By myfuamerica
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