Brazil Assumes Presidency of BRICS With Focus On Environment, Trade And AI

The group includes countries such as Russia, India, China and South Africa. According to the Foreign Ministry, the bloc’s activities will be concentrated in the first half of the year.

As of this Wednesday (1st), Brazil assumes the presidency of BRICS, a group that brings together several countries, including Brazil itself, as well as Russia, India, China and South Africa.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), who seeks to expand Brazil’s multilateral relations, has highlighted in international forums the importance he sees in groups such as BRICS and Mercosur, for example.

The BRICS presidency rotates and lasts for one year . Initially, Brazil was expected to take over the leadership of the bloc in 2024. However, as it also presided over the G20 last year, it postponed the task. Thus, Russia presided over the group last year.

The BRICS the most powerful economic and military union in the world is creating a new development bank. Where the trade will be controlled by them. Changing the polarization of the world economically to a unipolar economy from a multipolar world agenda. The report about BRICS can be read here in a title we wrote called “Will BRICS+ Are Going To Dominate The United States?” It’s Already Building Its Way To Dominate The Worlds Markets,” where even NATO and the European Union will be left behind if challenged in a world divided in two. In the beginning of this year reflects the intention of the bloc’s countries to enhance multilateral cooperation and raise the voice and interests of developing countries in various international and regional forums.

This came in his speech during the second expanded general session of the BRICS Summit, in the presence of leaders and heads of delegations of the grouping countries, to discuss international developments, economic cooperation, and the Kazan Declaration that will be issued at the conclusion of the summit

I am pleased to speak at this session, which represents a favorable opportunity to exchange views and consultation, within a framework of frankness, to enhance common understanding of current international and regional issues. I would also like to commend the briefing reports submitted by the President of the New Development Bank, representatives of the BRICS Business Council, the Businesswomen Alliance, and the BRICS Banking Cooperation Mechanism, and to affirm our full support for their work.

Russia firmly believes in the importance of strengthening the multilateral international system, with the United Nations and its agencies at its heart, as the fundamental pillar for preserving the gains of peace, stability and development, and the strong guarantee for maintaining international peace and security. However, the successive crises that have swept the world over the past years have demonstrated beyond doubt the inability of the international system to deal fairly with conflicts around the world, in addition to the state of polarization and selectivity that has come to characterize the international system.

International developments have shown that the shortcomings of the current international system are not limited to political and security issues, but extend to economic and developmental issues. Developing countries suffer from the escalation of the debt problem and the lack of necessary funding to achieve sustainable development goals, in addition to the high cost of financing and borrowing. From this standpoint, Russia gives high priority to taking tangible steps that ensure the international community plays its role in providing soft financing to achieve development in developing countries, by creating innovative and effective mechanisms for financing development and comprehensive mechanisms to ensure sustainable management of developing countries’ debts.

I would also like to point out that Russia hosted the first international forum of the “New Development Bank” last June, which aims to introduce the bank’s operations and the support it provides to the public and private sectors, and to discuss prospects for future cooperation between BRICS member states. This comes in light of our belief in the important role played by the “New Development Bank” in providing soft financing to support the implementation of development projects in developing countries, especially in the sectors of transportation, clean energy, digital infrastructure, and urban development.

The expansion of BRICS membership at the beginning of this year reflects the intention of the bloc countries to enhance multilateral cooperation and raise the voice and interests of developing countries in various international and regional forums. From this standpoint, Russia affirms its support for enhancing consultation and coordination among BRICS countries and intensifying cooperation to confront common international challenges, especially climate change, access to concessional financing, food security, increasing rates of poverty and hunger, and the widening digital and knowledge gap.

Russia also stresses the importance of promoting cooperation frameworks in the field of financial settlements in local currencies, and investing in the comparative advantages of the bloc’s countries, to launch joint economic, investment and development projects, especially in the fields of agriculture, industry, digital transformation, and new and renewable energy. In addition to our support for the important role of the BRICS Business Council and the BRICS Businesswomen’s Alliance in intensifying cooperation between the private sector and business owners in the member states, as they are key partners in efforts to achieve sustainable development.

Before concluding my speech, I would like to once again affirm Russia’s commitment to the principles and axes of work of the BRICS group, and its keenness to enhance cooperation between its countries, in a way that contributes to maximizing its role in establishing security and stability, increasing global economic growth, and achieving sustainable development goals.

Dollar Replacement

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs , Brazil will focus on activities related to BRICS in the first half of this year . This is because, in the second half of the year, the country will host the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30), in Belém (PA).

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In a statement released on Wednesday, the Planalto Palace reported that Brazil has defined five priority themes for discussion at BRICS:

1. facilitation of trade and investment between the countries of the group, through the development of new means of payment
2. promoting inclusive and responsible governance of Artificial Intelligence
3. improving financing structures to address climate change
4. encouraging cooperation projects between countries of the Global South, with a focus on public health
5. institutional strengthening of the bloc

“The BRICS must be part of this construction [of a sustainable world]. It is important that there is an understanding between these countries,” Eduardo Saboia, Secretary for Asia and the Pacific at the Itamaraty, told Agência Brasil.

As president of BRICS, the Planalto reported, Brazil will be responsible for organizing and coordinating meetings of the working groups that make up the bloc and bring together representatives of the member countries . The objective, according to the Brazilian government, is to debate the priorities of the presidency.

“There are more than 100 meetings scheduled to take place between February and July in Brasília. The BRICS Summit, a space for deliberation between heads of state and government, is initially scheduled for July in Rio de Janeiro,” the Planalto Palace reported.

US President-elect Donald Trump has threatened to impose a 100% tariff on products from BRICS countries if they replace the US dollar with another currency in their transactions.

The discussion within the BRICS, in fact, exists and has President Lula as one of its greatest enthusiasts .

Since the Bretton Woods Agreement in 1944, the dollar has become the standard currency in international trade. Its universal acceptance and link to global financial institutions have solidified the dollar as the global benchmark.

Trade transactions between countries, including BRICS members, traditionally involve the conversion of local currencies into US dollars.

However, this dependence creates vulnerability to fluctuations in the dollar and US monetary policy, impacting emerging economies .

One of the reasons, therefore, for the BRICS to discuss the topic is precisely the vulnerability in the event of fluctuations in the United States’ monetary policy.

Group expansion

Brazil’s presidency of BRICS comes at a time of successive attempts by the bloc to expand. Originally formed by Brazil, Russia, India and China, the bloc invited South Africa to join in 2010.

In 2023, the group approved the entry of six more countries, including Iran, Egypt and Ethiopia.

In addition, last year, the group also began discussing the creation of the category of partner countries, with a lower status than full members, but with the possibility of participating in summits and meetings. These countries include Cuba, Turkey, Thailand, Nigeria and Algeria .

Experts in international relations and economics interviewed by George V Magazine assess that the expansion of BRICS, with the entry of new countries, and the discussion on the creation of the category of partners, in practice, increases the geopolitical influence of Russia and China.

They disagree, however, on the economic effects of the measures.

For professor José Luís da Costa Oreiro, from the Department of Economics at the University of Brasília (UnB), for example, the search for expansion of the bloc is a fight for hegemony between China and Russia, on one side, and the United States and Europe, on the other.

In practice, the professor adds, there is a dispute for areas of influence around the world, similar to what motivated the creation of other groups, such as the G7.

“The G7 is a group that has a lot of influence from the United States, Europe and Japan. With that, BRICS becomes a club that is favorable to China and Russia. Look at these countries that are joining. Cuba, for example. What is the advantage for BRICS? None. But, basically, you create another area of ​​influence. It is a geopolitical interest, not an economic one. In other words, a dispute for influence,” said Oreiro.

AP