BRICS Leaders Call for Democratic Global Order

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa set the tone for the BRICS summit in Johannesburg when he opened the gathering on Tuesday with calls for a more democratic global economic order with greater participation of countries from the Global South. He underlined that BRICS stands for inclusiveness and transparency in its development agenda and must continue to do so.

Along with the heads of states of the existing BRICS members --- Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — over 60 other countries participated in the 15th BRICS summit, which concludes Thursday

Chinese President Xi Jinping --- in a speech delivered by China’s Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao — highlighted the formal membership application of more than 20 countries and reiterated that China rejects the “exclusive blocs” mentality pursued by the West and called for expansion of BRICS.

[On Thursday, Ramaphosa announced that six countries --- Saudi Arabia, Iran, Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates — will join the first phase of the group’s expansion in January, Al Jazeera reports.]

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said his government fully supports the expansion of the bloc, adding that it welcomed “moving forward with consensus on this.” India also reiterated its proposal for the African Union’s membership in the G20.

New Model of Development

In his speech, Xi emphasized that the BRICS model of development and growth is contrary to the West’s approach of hegemonization. Asserting that countries should have the freedom to pursue their own development model, Xi claimed that one country, “obsessed with maintaining hegemony, has gone out of its way to cripple emerging markets and developing countries” --- an obvious reference to the U.S.

Xi noted that the world is forced to face a choice --- between peace and stability and a new cold war — due to the hegemonic agenda pursued by the West, and pointed out that “hegemonism disrupts development, violates the nation’s right to prosperity and sovereign development.”

Xi noted that BRICS’ New Development Bank (NDB) has been designed to pursue a sustainable development agenda without the political and economic conditionalities which often come with the other existing global financial institutions.

https://consortiumnews.com/2023/08/24/brics-leaders-call-for-democratic-global-order/