B.R.I.C.S. Discussion

Egypt has applied to join the BRICS

Further details:

How Egypt will strengthen the BRICS, by Evgeny Pozdnyakov and Alena Zadorozhnaya for VZGLYAD. 06.14.2023.

Experts explain the importance of Egypt joining BRICS.

There are more and more people wishing to join the BRICS. The corresponding application was received from Egypt, one of the most influential states in the Arab world. And Russia supported this initiative. What is Cairo's motive and what benefits will Egypt's entry into BRICS bring to other members of the association?

Egypt applied  to  join the BRICS.  Georgy Borisenko, Russian Ambassador to Cairo, told TASS about this  . According to the diplomat, the country made such a decision because one of the initiatives that the organization is currently engaged in is the maximum transfer of trade to alternative currencies.

Borisenko noted that Egypt is showing a great desire to develop trade and other types of economic cooperation with Russia. “Now there is a process of building new mechanisms for mutual settlements in these trade operations,” the ambassador said. Borisenko later added that Russia supports Cairo's initiative to join the BRICS.

At the moment, the members of the organization are Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Recently, however, more and more countries want to join the association. In March, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov noted that the number of applicants is increasing every month. At that time, 16 states were already in line.

One of these countries is Venezuela. President Nicolas Maduro  said that the BRICS is formed from five powerful countries and is transforming into a great magnet for those who want a different world. According to him, if an offer is made to join this association, then Venezuela will say yes. Earlier, the VZGLYAD newspaper  wrote in detail why states want to become part of the organization.

In turn, the head of Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, admitted that  he dreams  of creating a common BRICS currency, which will get rid of dependence on the dollar. Recall that the possibility of introducing a single currency will be the subject of discussion at the BRICS summit in August 2023,  said  Naledi Pandor, Foreign Minister of South Africa, the host country of the summit.

The expert community believes that Egypt's accession to the organization will be beneficial both to the state itself and to the participants in the association. “Now BRICS is the mouthpiece of the voices of Asia, Africa and Latin America. However, adding Egypt to this list will make it possible to take into account the opinion of the Arab-Muslim world. Cooperation with Cairo will make the format of the organization more comprehensive and universal,”  said  Valdai Club Program Director Timofei Bordachev.

“The problems of possible accession lie in the fact that the criteria for participation in the organization have not yet been clarified. At the same time, BRICS is radically different from the same G7, which has become a format for dialogue among allied countries, the interlocutor recalls. -

Membership does not impose any restrictions on the sovereignty of the foreign policy of Brazil, India, Russia, China and South Africa.”

“Against this background, problems may arise in introducing a new position into the general rhetoric of the organization. I see no economic barriers to Egypt's entry into the BRICS. Ultimately, the financial sector has never been decisive within this format. It is much more important to give a large non-Western country the opportunity to be heard,” emphasizes Bordachev.

“This decision by Egypt confirms the strengthening of the BRICS. The Organization is beginning to be perceived as a powerful actor in international politics, with the help of which one can clearly state one's own view of the current state of affairs in the world. Let me remind you that Algeria and Saudi Arabia had previously reported a similar desire,” said orientalist Kirill Semenov, an expert at the Russian International Affairs Council.

“After the start of the NWO, the geopolitical landscape began to change. Many large countries have seen that Western states are ready to abandon the proclaimed principles of the rule of law and the free market if they begin to conflict with their personal interests. There was a need to search for alternatives,” the interlocutor emphasizes.

“That is why the Middle East is starting to look towards the BRICS. In the future, this will make the position of the organization on global issues more comprehensive, because it will also reflect the opinion of the Arab-Muslim world,” the expert notes.

“For Egypt, BRICS membership will strengthen a multi-vector foreign policy. It is also beneficial for us.

Cairo wants to develop trade ties not only with Western countries, but also with other important players in international markets. Such a desire must be encouraged and supported in every possible way, ”the orientalist argues.

“Egypt is a major regional power with colossal authority, as well as economic and social potential. The country's accession to the BRICS will once again emphasize the growing importance of this format of cooperation,” Semyonov sums up.

https://vz.ru/politics/2023/6/14/1216563.html

The Hegemon Will Go Full Hybrid War Against BRICS+, by Pepe Escobar for Strategic Culture Foundation. 06.14.2023.

U.S. Think Tank Land hacks are not exactly familiar with Montaigne: “On the highest throne in the world, we still sit only on our own bottom.”

Hubris leads these specimens to presume their flaccid bottoms are placed high above anyone else’s. The result is that a trademark mix of arrogance and ignorance always ends up unmasking the predictability of their forecasts.

U.S. Think Tank Land – inebriated by their self-created aura of power – always telegraphs in advance what they’re up to. That was the case with Project 9/11 (“We need a new Pearl Harbor”). That was the case with the RAND report on over-extending and unbalancing Russia. And now that’s the case with the incoming American War on BRICS as outlined by the chairman of the New York-based Eurasia Group.

It’s always painful to suffer through the intellectually shallow Think Thank Land wet dreams masquerading as “analyses” but in this particular case key Global South players need to be firmly aware of what awaits them.

Predictably, the whole “analysis” revolves around the imminent, devastating humiliation to the Hegemon and its vassals: what happens next in country 404, also known – for now – as Ukraine.

Brazil, India, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia are dismissed as “four major fence-sitters” when it comes to the U.S./NATO proxy war against Russia. It’s the same old “you’re with us or against us” trope.

But then we are presented with the six major Global South culprits: Brazil, India, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and Turkey.

In yet another crude, parochial remix of a catch phrase referring to the American elections, these are qualified as the key swing states the Hegemon will need to seduce, cajole, intimidate and threaten to assure its dominance of the “rules-based international order”.

Saudi Arabia and South Africa are added to a previous report focused on the “four major fence sitters”.

The swing state manifesto notes that all of them are G-20 members and “active in both geopolitics and geoeconomics” (Oh really? Now that’s some breaking news). What it does not say is that three of them are BRICS members (Brazil, India, South Africa) and the other three are serious candidates to join BRICS+: deliberations will be turbo-charged in the upcoming BRICS summit in South Africa in August.

So it’s clear what the swing state manifesto is all about: a call to arms for the American war against the BRICS.

So BRICS packs no punch

The swing state manifesto harbors wet dreams of near-shoring and friend-shoring moving away from China. Nonsense: enhanced intra-BRICS+ trade will be the order of the day from now on, especially with the expanded practice of trade in national currencies (see Brazil-China or within ASEAN), the first step towards widespread de-dollarization.

The swing states are characterized as “not a new incarnation” of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), or “other groupings dominated by the Global South, such as the G-77 and BRICS.”

Talk about exponential nonsense. This is all about BRICS+ – which now has the tools (including the NDB, the BRICS bank) to do what NAM could never accomplish during the Cold War: establish the framework of a new system bypassing Bretton Woods and the interlocking coercion mechanisms of the Hegemon.

As for stating that BRICS has not “packed much punch” that only reveals U.S. Think Tank Land’s cosmic ignorance of what BRICS + is all about.

The position of India is only considered in terms of being a Quad member – defined as a “U.S.-led effort to balance China”. Correction: contain China.

As for the “choice” of swing states of choosing between the U.S. and China on semiconductors, AI, quantum technology, 5G and biotechnology, that’s not about “choice”, but to what level they are able to sustain Hegemon pressure to demonize Chinese technology.

Pressure on Brazil, for instance, is much heavier than on Saudi Arabia or Indonesia.

In the end though, it all comes back to the Straussian neocon obsession: Ukraine. The swing states, in varying degrees, are guilty of opposing and/or undermining the sanctions dementia. Turkey, for instance, is accused of channeling “dual-use” items to Russia. Not a word on the U.S. financial system viciously forcing Turkish banks to stop accepting Russian MIR payment cards.

On the wishful thinking front, this pearl stands out among many: “The Kremlin seems to believe it can make a living by turning its trade south and east.”

Well, Russia is already making excellent living all across Eurasia and a vast expanse of the Global South.

The economy has re-started (drivers are domestic tourism, machine building and the metals industry); inflation is at only 2.5% (lower than anywhere in the EU); unemployment is at only 3.5%; and head of the Central Bank Elvira Nabiullina said that by 2024 growth will be back to pre-SMO levels.

U.S. Think Tankland is congenitally incapable of understanding that even if BRICS+ nations may still have some serious trade credit issues to iron out, Moscow has already shown how even an implied hard backing of a currency can turn out to be an instant game changer. Russia is at the same time backing not only the ruble but also the yuan.

Meanwhile, the Global South de-dollarization caravan moves on relentlessly – as much as the proxy war hyenas may keep howling in the dark. When the full – staggering – scale of NATO’s humiliation in Ukraine unfolds, arguably by mid-summer, the de-dollarization high-speed train will be fully booked, non-stop.

"Offer you can’t refuse” rides again

If all of the above was not already silly enough, the swing state manifesto doubles down on the nuclear front, accusing them of “future (nuclear) proliferation risks”: especially – who else – Iran.

By the way, Russia is defined as a “middle power, but one in decline”. And “hyper-revisionist” to boot. Oh dear: with “experts” like this, the Americans don’t even need enemies.

And yes, by now you may be excused to roar with laughter: China is accused of attempting to direct and co-opt BRICS. The “suggestion” – or “offer you can’t refuse”, Mafia-style – to the swing states is that you cannot join a “Chinese-directed, Russian-assisted body actively opposing the United States.”

The message is unmistakable: “The threat of a Sino-Russian co-optation of an expanded BRICS—and through it, of the global south—is real, and it needs to be addressed.”

And here are the recipes to address it. Invite most swing states to the G-7 (that was a miserable failure). “More high-level visits by key U.S. diplomats” (welcome to cookie distributor Vicky Nuland). And last but not least, Mafia tactics, as in a “nimbler trade strategy that begins to crack the nut of access to the U.S. market.”

The swing state manifesto could not but let the Top Cat out of the bag, predicting, rather praying that “U.S.-China tensions rise dramatically and turn into a Cold War-style confrontation.” That’s already happening – unleashed by the Hegemon.

So what would be the follow-up? The much sought after and spun-to-death “decoupling”, forcing the swing states to “align more closely with one side or the other”. It’s “you’re with us or against us” all over again.

So there you go. Raw, in the flesh – with inbuilt veiled threats. The Hybrid War 2.0 against the Global South has not even started. Swing states, you have all been warned.

https://www.unz.com/pescobar/the-hegemon-will-go-full-hybrid-war-against-brics/

Egypt joining would be good for Egypt and it will be good for BRICS.

I also think Egypt should be added as a permanent member of the UNSC along with South Africa and Indonesia and at least a few South American countries.

@Garry: Honestly speaking I do not trust the current Egypt government. From what I heard they have suspicious relationship with UK intelligence and have been carrying out the typical "privatization" encouraged by the West.

higurashihougi wrote:@Garry: Honestly speaking I do not trust the current Egypt government. From what I heard they have suspicious relationship with UK intelligence and have been carrying out the typical "privatization" encouraged by the West.

Are you talking about a suspicious relationship
Britain is the most hostile country to Egypt so far
It has all opponents of terrorist party attacking Egypt day and night

@higurashihougi reading news doesn't necessarly makes it facts , most of western intelligence agencies are sharing data with Mossad about Arabs capabilities .

Of course Russian SVR, FSB ,FSO and GUSP knows more than me and you .

Bangladesh has officially applied to become a full member of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa). This was reported on Monday by the Bangladeshi newspaper Dhaka Tribune.

According to the publication, the request to join the association was sent after a meeting between Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and South African President Cyril Ramaposa in Geneva last week. Sources told the newspaper that during the discussion of this issue with Prime Minister Hasina, the President of South Africa "reacted positively to this" proposal.

Instead of BRICS, GAPP - Global and Peaceful Pack of countries.

So many countries seem to want to join perhaps eventually the name collectively could be EBTUSA... as in Everyone But The...

You can't let them in or they will simply try to take control... and undermine everyone else like they do in every other organisation they are a part of.

@Garry: Honestly speaking I do not trust the current Egypt government. From what I heard they have suspicious relationship with UK intelligence and have been carrying out the typical "privatization" encouraged by the West.

Not trusting a government because the British Intel are trying to infiltrate them would mean not trusting any government on the planet sadly.

It is something all governments need to be aware of... BRICSA countries more than any other.

So I am agreeing with your post, but also agreeing with some of the replies you are getting that seem to oppose your view.

Because I think both sides agree UK Intel infestation is bad all round.

Bangladesh has officially applied to become a full member of the BRICS

The great thing about BRICS is that it is not about attracting the rich and powerful... it is really about attracting like minded countries that want to grow and develop their own country and want to work with other countries together to make that happen for everyone.

Ironically western governments have forgotten that there is more money to be made in the development of new countries economies than in mature economies or stale economies like Japan or the US or the west in general that are dominated by monopolies.

Western companies didn't go in to Russia to help Russia, they went to make lots of money in places where there was little to no competition and if the west had left things alone western companies would dominate the Russian economy because no new Russian company could grow and develop and set itself up with such cheap competition.

What has happened now for Russia where western companies are leaving or getting kicked out by their own media shaming them for still being there means they lost all the setting up resources and production potential they put in place and some Russian can now buy their business there for a fraction of its real value and take over their business model and adapt it to the Russian market with promises the western company can buy back in 5 or 10 or 15 years... who thinks that is going to happen?

It means Russian companies can now replace foreign companies with now domestic products and can buy local materials and machines and equipment instead of importing foreign materials and machines and equipment like the foreign companies would prefer...

This is great for Russia and they can help countries in the rest of the world perhaps do the same when the west and the US starts trying to punish other countries for joining BRICS...

During the next BRICS summit in South Africa, a strategic decision should be made to include Mexico and Argentina for neutralising Celso Amorim's Brazil in the group.
Lopez Obrador's Mexico has been a truly leader in spearheading Spanish speaking Latin American countries towards a united front against Western hegimony. Argentina is mostly regarded in the region as an offset to Portuguese speaking under-imperialistic ambitions of neighboring Brazil at the service of US and EU.
Lula da Silva has embarked on  sweetheart relationships with the main EU NATO countries.with the aim of obtaining economic advantages for Mercosur in  FTA deal with Europe.

It really heartens me that Mexico is pursuing an independent policy of the USA. It has been abused so much by the f*cking gringos like
many other countries. I hope one day the exceptionalist f*cks north of the border will be put in their place.

a strategic decision should be made to include Mexico and Argentina for neutralising Celso Amorim's Brazil in the group.

I rather suspect the criteria for joining BRICS will mostly revolve around not using sanctions and economic pressure to bully other countries... so France and the US would be a no... but I would say Mexico and Argentina and any other country in the Americas should be allowed to join except the USA and Canada unless they dramatically change their colonial bullying ways.

In many ways BRICS is anti colonial...

Global South external indebted countries could begin to pay off their debts to IMF and World Bank in yuan (as Argentina is proceeding with now) if China's Central Bank agrees to reach a deal with BRICS New Development Bank and Global South indebted countries' central banks.

I personally would expect at the near future that Turkey will leave NATO and join BRICS. Right now they have a conflict of interest and potential sanctions could harm their political and economical plans for more sovereignty and establishing a pan-turkic influence sphere.

@Werewolf
I agree, but I think the HATO countries are stupid enough to make it really an easy choice for Turkey by pressure and sanctions and bullshit that will simply lead to HATO cutting ties from Turkey rather than Turkey having to actually reject HATO, which would be much harder to justify by their leadership.

It is the same for Russia... I very much doubt Putin could have turned Russia and Russians against the western world as effectively as western countries actions have managed to achieve over the last few years and no one can really blame Putin for the actions that led to it because essentially he had no real choice at all regarding this conflict... we now know it was the western plan all along and was going to happen whether Russia started it or not and honestly the country who started it got to get in the first blow and who knows if Kiev had started it it might have been a damaging blow.

The way it turned out Russia landed the first blows and got some real damage delivered and the west has essentially cut itself off from cheap energy and cut itself out of a very profitable Russian market for goods and services that it was making really good money on.

Lots of people living in the west was making good money out of Russia and not investing it back into Russia... but now the rich in Russia still making good money in Russia can really only spend their money investing in Russia which is good for Russia.

If Russians were not dying this would be all very very good stuff, but even with the loss of young men and women this is driving a shift for Russia that will be very good for Russias future for them to embrace the rest of the world and to avoid the terrible culture entropy the west is rushing towards like a lemming running full speed at a cliff.

That is OK, a new BRICS agreement on a new currency does not need to include India... they can choose not to be part of it... and they can either adopt it or choose not to be part of it later on.

Scorpius wrote:Let's try to assume:
First of all, it will be a single currency issuance center, represented by the investment development Bank, which will replace the IMF. As a result, investments within BRICS++ should become more accessible and generate an alternative to the Bretton Woods system of capital reproduction, which will be based not on financial capital, but on industrial capital. Due to the industrialization of the BRICS++ block, it is possible to maintain sustainable economic growth in the range of about 15% per year for a period of more than 50 years for all BRICS++ participants.

As it happens, came across a good video on this topic

Mr.Foo here is always been the half full or half empty type of guy, most of the time he just doesn't have the whole picture.
Nevertheless, India has me concerned.

GDP at purchasing power parity (PPP), % of world total:

G7 ( ):

1993 - 45.43%
2003 - 41.11%
2013 - 32.54%
2023 - 29.78%
2028 - 27.8%*

BRICS ( ):

1993 - 16.66%
2003 - 20.17%
2013 - 28.73%
2023 - 32.22%
2028 - 33.7%*

https://twitter.com/SpriterTeam/status/1686438102250770439

I wonder if that prediction of 33.7% in 2028 includes any new members to BRICS?

The G7 has seven members even if one is in total charge... BRICS has five countries...

When there are 20 or more BRICS countries...

Does not look like it to me. The global GDP pool that BRICS can grow in is 72.2% so the expansion would be rapid. The posted figures
look more like GDP growth projections.

The fact that the difference in numbers is not huge suggests it is a suble prod to the west to try to do better or do it harder because you are being left behind... but that ignores the fact that they are colonial bullies and you need a position of power to be successful... a bully nobody respects or fears... is nothing.