Alwaght- In recent years, geopolitical tensions, the international management system's inability to settle regional and international crises, and the instrumental use of the monetary and trade mechanisms in the geopolitical and political competitions by the world powers have posed challenges to the prospects of global economic stability especially in the developing countries and Global South. To beat these challenges, there is a need, many agree, for moulting in the global economic blocs more than ever.
After decades of posting strong economic growth, the emerging markets are ready to play a bigger role in the world order under BRICS bloc, a role that would better reflect their interests. In this connection, as more countries join the bloc, meetings for coordination of plans are gaining momentum. In the latest summit, the foreign ministers of the BRICS gathered in Russia on Monday and Tuesday to discuss various international issues.
According to Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, this event is held in a broad format due to the participation of non-BRICS partners. In addition to the 10 BRICS member countries, Algeria, Bahrain, Belarus, Cuba, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Laos, Mauritania, Nigeria, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Turkey, Venezuela and Vietnam have been invited to this meeting.
Before the foreign ministerial meeting, the special envoys of BRICS members met on June 7 in the Russian city of Nijni Novogord.
In this meeting, the statement of BRICS foreign ministers and the document related to criteria, standards and models related to BRICS partner countries were discussed.
On the first day, a special meeting of foreign ministers of the BRICS member countries was held, and cooperation within the framework of BRICS and regional and global issues has been announced as the title of the first day of the summit.
The second day of the summit saw foreign ministers of countries applying for membership of the bloc joining the meeting.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said: "At the BRICS meeting, the parties intend to discuss current issues of international relations, the international agenda, improving the global governance system with an emphasis on strengthening the role of developing countries, resolving conflicts and interacting on leading multilateral platforms."
The summit also turned into a scene for bilateral and collective meetings among the member and applicant states, especially that on the eve of the summit a number of countries including Turkey and Thailand voiced interest to join this enlarging economic bloc. Therefore, analysts agree, this summit provides a good opportunity for discussing interaction, cooperation, and outlook of BRICS.
On June 18, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the general assembly of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum that the BRICS group has a great capacity to host new countries as members. He added that Russia "welcomes this and will support it in every possible way."
Iran's Acting Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani, who traveled to Russia to participate in the BRICS foreign ministerial summit, said upon his arrival that "this is the first meeting at the level of BRICS foreign ministers after the officialization of Iran's membership. BRICS is the largest international trade economic organization outside the framework of Western unilateralism playing a role with the presence of important countries."
He maintained that Iran's presence indicates the position and significance of the Islamic Republic in the emerging multilateral system. Iran, as one of the leading countries in the field of multilateralism, by joining BRICS, made a serious effort from the very beginning to establish the role of this organization in the global economic and trade mechanisms by playing an effective role.
The top Iranian diplomat noted that Iran's membership in this bloc is a "legacy of the Martyr President Seyyed Ibrahim Raisi and Martyr Hussein Amir-Abdollahian." Concerning the agenda of the summit and his meetings, Bagheri Kani said: "We are making a serious effort to actively participate in the meetings held in this city and also to discuss regional and international bilateral issues with various BRICS member countries in the bilateral meetings held on the sidelines of the summit."
"The next day, the group of developing countries will be added to the meeting of BRICS member countries, which is also an important meeting, indicating that BRICS is determined to expand the scope of its activities to other countries," he said.
The BRICS, which started in 2009 with the presence of Brazil,Russia, India, China, developed its activities after South Africa joined it, and in the last two years under the leadership of China and Russia, many countries have expressed their desire to join it, and so this bloc is becoming a powerful international union.
First official Iranian presence in BRICS
The BRICS foreign ministers summit was held as Iran is participating as an official member of this world club for the first time, and this gathering of economic partners can bring great achievements for Iran in the future. The "Look East" strategy of the administration of the late President Seyyed Ibrahim Raisi in the last three years showed that despite the cruel sanctions of the West, economic problems and challenges can be beaten with new economic initiatives and interaction with other countries. Therefore, this diplomatic success in the field of foreign policy of Raisi's administration should be placed at the top of the plans of the diplomatic system in the next Iranian administration so that the country moves in this path with greater strength.
Since BRICS members are looking for de-dollarization of bilateral and multilateral interactions within the bloc, in case of expansion of trade interactions among these countries, the pressure lever of the US and the West to blow the economy of noncompliant states will dwindle, and the developing states would do business without fearing Western sanctions. So, this is a good opportunity for Iran to bypass thd sanctions and de-dollarize its foreign business to inject new blood into its booming economy.
According to the reported statistics, nearly 40 percent of Iran's exports in 2022 were to the 5 main BRICS member countries, and 35 percent of imports were from these 5 countries, which shows the significant role of this bloc in Iran's trade. With Iran now being a member in this economic group, business will expand in the future, and with tariff cuts, the trade will prosper further.
Another advantage of Iran's membership in BRICS is attraction of foreign investment. The member countries are expected to make more investments in Iran, and in recent years, Russia and China have signed long-term agreements with Tehran to invest in energy and other infrastructural sectors.
Also, with the establishment of new banks under the BRICS, Iran can take advantage of these financial institutions to apply for loans for the development of domestic infrastructure, something that has faced serious obstacles in the past four decades due to the US sway over the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.
BRICS role in global management shift
Though the BRICS was initially established with economic drives, the tangible decline of the US superpowership and Western hegemony in international developments and acceleration of the transition to the multipolar international world order has practically doubled the place and role of BRICS with the presence of emerging powers. Consequently, BRICS members have understood the growing expectations from this bloc and prioritized its global role play. Exit of the world trade from under the dominance of the US dollar is one of the most important indications of the BRICS lead, showing that the emerging economic powers are gaining influence in the world's economic affairs and they have already started to build alternatives to the Western-dominated institutions.
The members of BRICS have come to believe that the Western-built world order has proven its inefficiency after several decades and instead of solving global challenges, it has deliberately helped to exacerbate them.
Since global trade requires stability and security of the countries, BRICS powers are trying to provide platforms for the prosperity of trade among the bloc members by providing alternative solutions to change the management of the world.
Several developing countries that are not aligned to the NATO and the West have resisted the Western pressures for compliance with the Western anti-Russian sanctions in response to Ukraine war. Also, some countries have complained that the G7 countries' initiatives to fight climate change and the coronavirus pandemic have not taken into account their needs. Hence, BRICS structures are slowly evolving through regular meetings, joint initiatives and formal institutions to create a new order and break the West's dominance over global institutions.
Although the developed countries of the Group of 7 hold nearly half of the world's gross domestic product, the developing countries in BRICS also have a lot of capacities that can help them stand up to the excesses of the West.
In this connection, with the accession of Iran, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, the BRICS countries have about 32 percent of the world's natural gas production and 43 percent of crude oil.
The BRICS countries also account for 38 percent of global oil imports, topped by China and India, and if all the new applicants are accepted, this amount will increase to 55 percent. In times of fluctuations in energy markets, having many of the largest energy buyers and sellers in one group can create a parallel energy trading system, allowing trade among BRICS economies outside the Western-led financial system and possible future sanctions programs. It perhaps would give them the ability to impact the oil prices.
By promoting its vision for the modern world, the BRICS is seeking shift of global power center from Euro-Atlantic region to pragmatic multilateralism. China's New Silk Road project, officially dubbed Road and Belt Initiative (RBI), is one of the initiatives that serves this objective and bears the potential to gather BRICS members together and grant them the pulse of world markets.
Just contrary to the West's new world order, the BRICS pursues global multilateralism that rests on common efforts, a culture of dialogue based on equality, respect to individual path of development of states, consideration of main interests of states, and search for common points. BRICS acts like a driving force in restructuring the century-old world order, and further cooperation within the framework of the BRICS will undoubtedly upgrade the world governance structure from the center-surround model to equality-governance model.
