By Chris Muhizi Minembwe Capital News Thursday 1st May/2023.
From today Thursday, foreign ministers from the BRICS nations will gather in South Africa to discuss how to best counterbalance Western geopolitical dominance in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Foreign ministers from Brazil, Russia, India, and South Africa will attend the conference on Thursday in Cape Town, according to South African officials. China is being represented by a deputy minister.
According to Cobus van Staden of the South African Institute of International Affairs, “BRICS is positioning itself as an alternative to the West and as a way to make space for emerging powers.”
China may discuss its 12-point peace plan and the continuing crisis between Russia and Ukraine is anticipated to be on the agenda. It appears unlikely that this idea will be accepted by all the member nations, though. Throughout the year, a number of nations have put up peace plans, highlighting the need of upholding international law and UN ideals, including China and South Africa. Reaching a full agreement is difficult, despite the BRICS foreign ministers’ potential for having more in-depth discussions about the conflict’s urgency and its effects on the world’s food and energy security.
At the BRICS foreign ministers’ meeting, local currency trade is expected to be discussed. More and more trade is being settled in the indigenous currencies of nations like China, India, and Russia rather than using dollars.
This shift is regarded as a reaction to the United States’ “weaponization” of financial instruments and its effects on Russia, notably the seizure of reserves and Russia’s expulsion from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT).
In an effort to lessen reliance on the U.S. dollar, it is anticipated that the gathering in Cape Town will stimulate such local currency trade even more.
The discussions serve as a lead-up to a summit that will take place in Johannesburg in August and that has already sparked controversy due to the possibility that Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is the subject of an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC), would attend.In March, it accused him of committing the war crime of forcibly removing kids from Ukrainian territory that was under Russian occupation. Moscow disputes the charges. Putin has already been invited by South Africa in January.
The leaders of the BRICS have stated that they are open to accepting new members, especially oil-producing nations, despite the growing geopolitical polarization brought on by the conflict in Ukraine.
If Putin attended the meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa would be under pressure from the ICC to have him detained.
Putin has not made his plans public; the Kremlin has simply stated that Russia will participate at the “proper level.”
It’s uncertain what South Africa will do. Although the government is still considering the prospect of hosting Putin or perhaps shifting the summit to China, Pretoria has stated that it will uphold its commitments under its membership in the ICC.