While U.S. officials believe the BRICS group’s meeting in the Russian city of Kazan is unlikely to turn into a geopolitical rivalry, analysts say BRICS members are working on issues that could further dissociate them from Western influences.
Among the topics discussed among members from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa are ways to establish an alternative payment system that would not depend on the U.S. dollar, a currency digital BRICS and an alternative to Western financial institutions like the International Monetary Fund. .
China, Russia and Iran – countries facing severe trade restrictions imposed by the United States – have been particularly keen to advance BRICS’ stated goals and circumvent what they view as illegal sanctions.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi indicated at the BRICS meeting that he was also interested. “We welcome efforts to increase financial integration among BRICS countries. Local currency trade and smooth cross-border payments will strengthen our economic cooperation,” Modi said.
Russian State Duma Chairman Viachaslav Volodin wrote ahead of the two-day meeting on cloud-based messaging app Telegram that BRICS priorities reflect the divide between West and South. “The time of the hegemony of Washington and Brussels is over. Countries choose the path of equal dialogue and mutually beneficial cooperation in the interests of the people, and not to please the United States and its minions,” he said.
U.S. officials say they are not worried.
“We don’t envision BRICS becoming some kind of geopolitical rival. That’s not how we envision things… vis-à-vis the United States or anyone else ” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Monday during a press briefing.
Meanwhile, India’s Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping met on the sidelines of the BRICS meeting on Wednesday, signaling a thaw in relations between the two sometimes antagonistic nations that some analysts say could have geopolitical implications.
Two days before the BRICS meeting, Indian and Chinese officials agreed to resolve the thorny issue of military patrols along the India-China border. The aim is to ensure that both sides withdraw their troops from forward positions in disputed areas and return to the situation that existed before the last border conflict in 2020.
“We welcome the consensus reached on the problems that have emerged over the past four years along the border. Our priority should be to ensure peace and stability along our border,” Modi told Xi in the first minutes of the meeting, broadcast live. Xi responded by saying the rapprochement was “in the fundamental interests of the two countries.”
Analysts are trying to assess what has driven India to seek rapprochement with Beijing despite being closely tied to U.S.-led deals designed to counter China’s influence.
India plays a key role in the US Indo-Pacific strategy and the Washington-led Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QUAD) involving Japan, India, Australia and the US. China views the QUAD, which regularly holds exercises between the armies of the four member countries, as a group determined to harm its interests.
“Being part of the QUAD does not help India, which needs support to meet China’s military challenge in the Himalayan mountain region. Furthermore, the United States is developing a relationship with Pakistan, which is against India’s interests,” P. Stobdan, a former Indian diplomat and author, told VOA.
Chinese media quoted Lin Minwang, a professor at the Institute of Strategic and International Security Studies at Fudan University, as saying that India is seeking reconciliation with China because the United States does not had not supported its efforts to develop its manufacturing sector.
“India’s policy of detachment from China has failed to attract significant support from the US-led West to support ‘Made in India’ and modernization and industrialization of the country,” Lin said. It is hostile to or dissociates itself from China, and it even makes it difficult for India to achieve its own development,” he added.
Some experts believe the United States would not be surprised by this turn of events.
“The United States knew all along that India and China were going to connect at some point. There are strong political and economic reasons for them to engage with each other,” said Manoranjan Mohanty, a New Delhi-based China expert.
