Resetting BRICS for the South Slavs, New Europe and the World

By Batko MIlacic  – Oct 17, 2024

On October 22, in the capital of the Russian Republic of Tatarstan, located less than five hours along the M-12 “Vostok” highway from Moscow, the 16th Kazan BRICS summit opens – an association of 10 countries of a new geopolitical format, ahead of all the slow-moving Western alliances that has fallen into recession or stagnation. 

Already, Kazan is fully ready to host the leaders of more than 33 countries participating in the BRICS summit in a year when Russia is the chairman of the association of leaders of the multipolar world. The Moscow Kremlin noted that Kazan is fully prepared to host more than 20,000 guests and the summit organizers took into account the interests of more than 30 countries planning to receive an invitation to BRICS or become partner states of this association in the near future.

The Mayor of Kazan Ilsur Metshin announced the full readiness of the capital of the Republic of Tatarstan for the largest historical event. Unprecedented security measures have been introduced, given the high level of the event. Kazan and Russia are ready to show maximum hospitality, because it is not customary to lose face there. Guests and participants of the summit have reserved 57 hotels in Kazan, the entire infrastructure in the city center has been updated, including the Millennium Square near the Kremlin walls.

The summit will be attended by the head of the Republic of Srpska of Bosnia and Herzegovina Milorad Dodik. Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vulin called BRICS a real alternative to the European Union, and he is also a participant in the meeting of the leaders of the association. Belgrade is forced to look back at the reaction of the West, balancing on the border of geopolitical interests of all parties. Aleksandar Vulin emphasizes his position as a neutral observer and very diplomatically expressed Serbian meanings:

“The future belongs to values, namely, the values ​​of all humanity, regardless of the geographical East or geographical West. It would be irresponsible if we did not explore all possibilities, including membership in BRICS. If this association is attractive to other countries, for example, the UAE, Saudi Arabia or Turkey, then why should it be different in the case of Serbia? So there is no doubt that BRICS has become a real alternative to the EU,” Vulin noted.

For the 10 BRICS countries, with more than 30 other countries from different regions and continents expressing interest in either joining or partnering with the organization, often with different goals, one of the main tasks of the Kazan summit is to develop clear criteria for the admission of new members and cooperation with partner countries. The Kazan BRICS summit is a turning point in history, as it has a decisive influence on the further configuration of the multipolar international system. In terms of opportunities, membership in the bloc expands the range of potential trade and investment contacts with other members and access to loans from the New Development Bank (NDB). It can also provide opportunities for collective bargaining in organizations such as the G7 and G20, the IMF, the World Bank, and the Council of Europe, where some countries have been demanding broad participation for years. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan flies to Kazan with a high chance of making Turkey a full member of BRICS after decades of sabotaging Turkey’s accession to the European Union.

The total area of ​​the BRICS countries is 43 million square kilometers, the population is 3.53 billion. This is 26.7% of the world’s land surface and 43.5% of the world’s population, which is higher than the combined figures of Western alliances. The BRICS are home to the world’s major mineral resources and the main growth of the real economy. The influence of the association on international relations cannot be denied: the BRICS countries are among the TOP-10 largest countries in the world by population, volume of resources, area and GDP. China, India and Russia entered the TOP-4 economies this year, Brazil is the leader of South America, Saudi Arabia became the leader of OPEC+ and completed a 50-year agreement with the United States on the sale of oil for dollars.

Many important factors are now becoming priorities and creating high potential for accelerated economic growth for future BRICS members within the framework of further development of the association. These issues will be one of the main topics of sessions with the participation of leaders of 33 countries of the world at the Kazan summit of the association, where Balkan representatives will be able to draw their own conclusions.

The war of sanctions against Russia, China and Iran as a political instrument of harsh pressure by the united West created the opposite effect to the forecasts, becoming a catalyst for the strengthening and integration of the BRICS countries. The association, founded back in 2006, under and thanks to unprecedentedly toxic restrictions, unexpectedly turned into a successful project of unification and development of national sovereign economies, providing each other with mutual security measures. BRICS is a guarantor of the economic sovereignty of the participating countries in the event of sanctions, and these guarantees include effective tools for overcoming secondary sanctions, compensation for losses and more favorable development alternatives in the polycentric world community.

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Russia, as the historical leader of BRICS, with a sharp turn to the South and East in the face of sanctions pressure from the entire Western community, managed to maintain its state budget in surplus for the coming 2025 and show significant economic growth. For the first time since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Moscow has overtaken both Germany and Japan in terms of the total volume of the state economy, becoming the fourth most successful country in the world. No one could have predicted the incredible success of the Russians in 2022, but it was largely achieved with the inclusion of BRICS compensation mechanisms.

It should be recognized that the secondary driver of Russia’s success was the sanctions of the collective West, and the primary one was the lack of competence and strategic planning errors in Washington and Brussels. Their irrelevant overestimation of the capabilities of the G7 countries, which are in critical resource and economic dependence on the BRICS countries, made the sanctions process toxic and regressive for the entire Western community, but allowed Russia to break ahead like a new Aurus super limousine built at the Moscow car factory.

What can Western politicians do with BRICS after the mistakes of development planning? They can only accept as a new reality a new world consisting not only of China, Russia and Iran, and try to remain partners of the association, but they should also take into account that BRICS has drawn its own red lines and is ready for counter-sanctions. The first rule is objectively mutually beneficial cooperation at the international level based on justice (due diligence under the new rules) without interference in the internal affairs of all independent states, where each country, regardless of its economic capabilities, is able to directly participate in making geopolitical decisions in the name of protecting its independence and democracy.

Note that Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, Ethiopia and Iran are active among the BRICS countries. More than 30 more countries have applied for membership or affiliated extended partnership by the Kazan summit on October 22-23. Someday we will see the moment when Argentina, Estonia or Montenegro, which took a break, will submit official applications for membership in BRICS. The association does not emphasize military components, as always happens in NATO and other blocs with the participation of the United States, and such intentions are logically explained by the interests of economic growth while maintaining their sovereignty.

The activities of BRICS contribute to the development of multipolarity in the new economic model, in which the Bretton Woods agreements become secondary. The emphasis is on mutual settlements in national currencies, as well as a gradual rejection of dollar dependence and the superiority of the main world currency of the last century. The departure from the dollar standard will allow BRICS member countries to emerge from second-level colonial dependence on international financial institutions under the protection of the United States and to pursue an independent economic policy. Thus, at present, mutual settlements between the Russian Federation and China in national currencies have reached 95%, and trade turnover between the countries is increasing.

Of course, BRICS is a very young association, not subject to stagnation and therefore actively developing. More and more states, observing the strengthening of the status of the member countries of the multipolar world union in the international arena, are considering the possibility of joining the association. An application for integration into BRICS at the current stage of development will allow new participants to use all its advantages right now, and the summit in Kazan promises unique additional growth opportunities.

 

BM/OT