from 21st Century Wire:
The next meeting of the BRICS group of nations is pivotal. Not only do Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa look to welcoming a new tranche of members into the club; but we also expect an announcement about a new currency regime. BRICS has grown from a talking house to a true international institution – and it is about to step out from the shadow of American hegemony.
In this article we will gain an overview of the key building blocks of the BRICS financial system including the proposed ‘Unit’. We will delve into the geopolitics that underlie the bloc’s metamorphosis and equivocate on the future of their evolution. Let us start with the geopolitics which have fertilised the fields for the growth of BRICS coin.
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The BRICS vs. The West
The BRICS is made up of the aforementioned nations from their acronym, as well as Iran, Egypt, UAE and Ethiopia. It agglomerated in 2009 to form an alliance of non-Western states as a counterpoint to the domination by European, then American empires in the 20th century. It emerged as little more than a talking shop modelled after the West’s G7 – where states would co-ordinate policy.
Yet as the 21st century unfolded, the Western states acted increasingly belligerently. Through continuing wars in the Middle East, little thrift was given to non-Western states on the global stage. The USA in particular played a loose hand geopolitically – always preferring to force its own interests at the cost of diplomacy and trust. This accelerated and relations between the West and East deteriorated, pivoting over military tensions in Central Europe (Ukraine), and the West Pacific (Taiwan) in particular. Today we have the abhorrent prospect of violence and ‘hot’ war; the precursor was a decade of ‘cold’ economic warfare.
The USA engaged with Russia and China using the policy of sanctions. The USA would limit trade in certain fields which it deemed politically useful, for example in energy and technology. One example was the US Dept. Of Commerce declaring Huawei, a Chinese telecoms company, as harmful and banning its products from the USA. Yet America went further still against its perennial enemy: Russia. Since 2014, after the Maidan coup against Yanukovich in Ukraine by NATO, relations between the USA and Russia deteriorated. The USA and EU began breaking off relations, severing trade relationships and then commenced economic sanctions. These included banning goods produced in Russia, banning financial institutions as well as banning Russian media from the West. Russia responded with commensurate sanctions and the rift began to deepen. Other key sanctions were the removal of Russia from the SWIFT system of international transfer, and the theft of Russian assets held in Western banks. All of this poisoned the well of good will between states and harmed the USA’s reputation as a trade partner internationally.
After a decade long proxy conflict we now see that the sanctions, aimed at hobbling Russia, have really made Russia turn in and strengthen. Even British State media admits “Russia’s economy grew by 2.2% in 2023” despite over 16,500 individual sanctions. Similarly she has sought to foster and grow ties with China and the other BRICS member states. The USA has abused its ‘exorbitant privilege’ of being the world’s reserve currency by using it as a weapon. Indian Exterior Ministe Jaishankar put it succinctly last week:
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