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The joint statement by the BRICS finance ministers and central bank governors may not sound too adventurous, but the constraints reflect not only caution when facing a dangerous, cornered Hegemon, but internal contradictions among BRICS members.
The statement recognizes “the need for a comprehensive reform of the global financial architecture to enhance the voice of developing countries and their representation.” Yet it remains clear the US has less than zero interest in a profound reform of the IMF, the World Bank and the Bretton Woods system.
Russia and China, especially, are fully aware that what is needed is a post-Bretton Woods.The statement is more forceful on the BRICS Cross-Border Payments Initiative, dubbed BCBPI, welcoming “the use of local currencies in international trade” and “the strengthening of banking networks” to enable them. Yet everything for the moment is only “voluntary and non-binding.” Kazan is expected to give the process some edge.
De-dollarization, Putin stressed, is proceeding step by step: “We’re taking individual steps, one after another. As regards finance, we did not drop the dollar. The dollar is the universal currency. But it wasn’t us -- we were banned and barred from [using] it. And now 95% of all the external trade of Russia is denominated in national currencies. They did it themselves with their own hands. They thought we would collapse.”
Putin will have at least 17 bilateral meetings in Kazan. He emphasized, once again, that “BRICS is not an anti-Western group, it’s just a non-Western group.”
And he named the key economic drivers in the near future: Southeast Asia and Africa. Development “will objectively take place primarily in BRICS member countries. This is the Global South. This is Southeast Asia. This is Africa. Positive growth will exist in powerful countries such as China, India, Russia, and Saudi Arabia, but the countries of Southeast Asia and Africa will show faster growth for several reasons.”
He also highlighted the top infrastructure development projects among BRICS and the Global South: the Northern Sea Route -- which the Chinese define as the Arctic Silk Road – and the International North-South Transportation Corridor (INSTC), with the BRICS triad Russia-Iran-India as the key partners. On the Northern Sea Route, Putin highlighted how “we are building an icebreaker fleet that has no peers in the world. It’s going to be a unique fleet, seven nuclear icebreakers and 34 diesel-propelled, high-class, heavy-duty icebreakers.”
The stakes in Kazan could not be higher. By the end of the week, the Global Majority will know whether Kazan will go down in history as the landmark of a new, emerging system of international relations, or if crass divide and rule tactics will keep postponing the inexorable demise of the Old Order.
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