How Expanded BRICS can break free from IMF & World Bank over G7; NDB new chance

Accordingly, Ogutcu says expanded BRICS could possibly challenge the G7, adding that NDB is a chance for states in the Global South to break free of the US-dominated IMF and World Bank and rewrite the rules of financing global development. Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE have officially been invited to join the BRICS group of emerging economies in the recent meeting held in South Africa’s Johannesburg. Iran’s accession to the BRICS group, which has so far included Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, is being hailed as a strategic success for its foreign policy in the face of illegal sanctions by the United States. BRICS is developing internal institutions for integration and increasing effective economic power in order to support the development programs of its members and strengthen their regional and international position. The establishment of financial institutions independent from Western institutions can be considered the most important success of BRICS in promoting convergence and its most important advantage in the new global economic structure. To shed light on the issue, we reached out to Mehmet Ogutcu Chairman of the London Energy Club and former OECD executive and Turkish diplomat. How do you assess the capacity of the BRICS to affect the existing world order and push the world towards a new multipolar world order in the future? And why are so many countries, including many US partners, participating in this project? I am not sure whether we can call the bloc of nations known as the BRICS taking the step of inviting six new countries for membership as a historic one. As economic tensions soar and geoeconomics becomes a battleground, the BRICS group is emerging as the “OECD of the Global South“. In terms of purchasing power parity, the BRICS are slightly larger than the G7. But, because their currencies trade at prices far below their PPP levels, the group remains significantly smaller than its advanced-economy counterpart, when measured in current nominal US dollars. China has firmly established itself as the world’s second-largest economy. In nominal terms, its GDP is more than three times larger than Japan and Germany, and around 75 percent the size of the US. Meanwhile, India has been growing fast and now seeks to become the third-largest economy by the end of 2020s. But none of the other BRICS has performed anywhere near as well as these two. Brazil and Russia account for around the same share of global GDP as they did in 2001. Still, the new bloc would collectively represent 46 percent of the world’s population and contribute 37 percent of global GDP when measured at purchasing power parity. Many countries of the Global South see their preferences and interests underrepresented or ignored in the world order as currently constitutedThere is a search for new initiatives to respond to the needs and challenges of the Global South. The G-7, G-20, OECD and others are not considered to be representing the global interests. Many countries of the Global South see their preferences and interests underrepresented or ignored in the world order as currently constituted. Additionally, aligning with organisations like BRICS does not mean binding commitments to one side of the new Cold War. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) may be a security cooperation forum like NATO but it lacks any Article 5 feature. China and Russia have decided to expand the group to grant it greater weight in international affairs. Over 40 countries have expressed interest in joining the BRICS group with 22 formally requesting membership. The BRICS grouping of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa has now been joined by Saudi Arabia, Iran, Ethiopia, the United Arab Emirates, Argentina and Egypt. We need a new name for expanded BRICS. Further expansions of an organisation many have touted as a systemic rival to the G7 seem almost certain to follow in future summits. There are those who think we are amid a new Cold War. Even members of the US Congress have lent credence to that concept. But that is not a good analogy, in my view. China is a peer economy to the US and is likely to overtake it in gross domestic product (GDP) soon, while the former Soviet Union’s economy was, at its peak, only a third that of the US. But what is critically different in the global landscape of alliances is that many countries can choose their alignment. #lineflux #brics #bricssummit #brics2023 #southafrica #ramaphosa #russia #bricsndb #ndb