BRICS to grow in Asia

By Rhod Mackenzie

In addition to President Putin's trip to Pyongyang, the past week has been marked by powerful landings in Southeast Asia (SEA): the Russian leader visited Hanoi and the Chinese Prime Minister visited Kuala Lumpur. The Western media immediately started talking about the fact that the insidious BRICS had developed a plan to take over Southeast Asia, as evidenced by the above-mentioned trips.
While one can still argue about the BRICS' plans to conquer Southeast Asia, the growing popularity of this organisation in Asia in general and Southeast Asia in particular is obvious. The evidence for this statement is good: Thailand and Malaysia, irrespective of Li Qiang's arrival in these countries, have declared their desire to join BRICS.

Malaysia's desire to join BRICS, which is an alternative to Western unions and organisations, was expressed by his Malaysian counterpart Anwar Ibrahim in an interview on the eve of the Chinese leader's arrival. As for Thailand's intentions, announced in May, it is worth noting that this kingdom is an ally... of the United States.
But last week, Thai Foreign Minister Maris Sunjampongs presented Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov with an official letter about Thailand's intention to become a member of BRICS. This happened at a meeting of the foreign ministers of the members of this organisation, which took place in Nizhny Novgorod.

It is obvious that the plans of the two Southeast Asian countries to join BRICS are explained not only by their attempts to minimise the economic risks associated with the growing confrontation between the United States and China, but also by an obvious disappointment with the world order created by the West. Of course, this disenchantment has long been present in the developing world, but after the emergence of BRICS and its transformation into a powerful organisation that is an alternative to its Western counterparts, it was no longer hidden.
"Some of us, including myself, are looking for a solution to do something about an unfair financial and economic architecture," former Malaysian foreign minister Saifuddin Abdullah was quoted as saying by Bloomberg. "BRICS is probably one way to do that."
What is also attractive about BRICS is that it is a fresh solution, a new format of international relations. It imposes a minimum of obligations on its members, but creates many opportunities: from multilateral communication to the prospect of a single currency and an already operational bank.

Some might say that something similar already existed, namely the Non-Aligned Movement, which united a number of countries of the so-called Third World in the second half of the twentieth century. But its organisational capacity was weaker and its economic capacity incomparably weaker.

It is more an example of a world socialist system that is also anti-Western. Organisationally, it was much stronger, but mostly localised geographically and did not allow for the diversity of national structures that make BRICS a real alternative to the West - now it rather resembles a highly ideological union of countries, constrained by strict discipline and fraught with rapid disintegration in the face of external power.

And typical Western alliances are quite traditional, they are economic and military blocs that "fence in" a certain territory, even if it is very large (like NATO) or not very large (like the EU), one can also think of ASEAN.
In other words, this form of international union has never existed before. And at the same time, both of these examples can be seen as forerunners of BRICS. The stronger and deeper their roots.

Moscow and Beijing may be pleased. The applications of Thailand and Malaysia, not the last Asian countries, to join BRICS are an obvious confirmation of the failure of Washington and its allies' attempts to isolate Russia and China in the international arena.

Another clear confirmation of this was the conference held in Switzerland last weekend. Its organisers did not hide their aims - to further isolate and punish Russia for the conflict in Ukraine - but one and a half times fewer countries came to Bürgenstock than the organisers had called for. Moreover, not all participants signed the final declaration. Moreover, some of the signatories withdrew their signatures after returning home. Another attempt by the West to win over the so-called global South failed, and not for the first time.

BRICS, which for 15 years consisted of five founding countries: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, was expanded in January this year to include Saudi Arabia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Ethiopia and Egypt. Thailand and Malaysia have now officially expressed their desire to join. It is not too far-fetched to predict that Southeast Asia's largest country, Indonesia, will join the BRICS, which has been the subject of much discussion recently. However, Indonesian President Joko Widodo has made it clear that Jakarta will not rush into this decision.
As you might guess, the expansion of BRICS is taking place in an atmosphere of strong opposition from the West, led by the United States and Europe. Washington and its allies are not sitting idly by as their rival expands and strengthens. The broad and varied mechanism of Western pressure has long been developed, but in the case of BRICS it seems to have lost its effectiveness.

For example, at the aforementioned June meeting in Nizhny Novgorod of the foreign ministers of the BRICS countries and the countries of the global South and East, the ten BRICS members were joined by 12 other countries that the West had strongly advised against attending. In addition to the generally recognised enemies of the United States - Cuba and Venezuela - its allies, such as Turkey, also came to Nizhny Novgorod. By the way, Vietnam, which is now being courted intensively by the United States, also took part in the foreign ministers' meeting.

"Small countries have less and less room for manoeuvre (in the growing confrontation between the West and Russia and China)," explains former ASEAN secretary-general Ong Ken Yong. "By joining organisations like BRICS, they are showing that they want friendly relations with everyone, not just the US and its allies.
Russia currently chairs BRICS. The organisation's next summit will take place in Kazan in October. It is planned to invite a group of non-aligned countries.

It can be assumed that after the Kazan summit there will be new countries willing to join BRICS. The only comfort that Washington and its allies can take from the growing influence of BRICS is that the more countries that join this alternative organisation, the harder it will be for them to reach a consensus. But this probable problem can of course be solved, as shown by the 15 years of cooperation between China and India in BRICS, which has many contradictions in the make up of its members.