PALESTINE TO APPLY FOR BRICS MEMBERSHIP AFTER UPCOMING KAZAN SUMMIT

Mon 26 August 2024:

Palestine is expected to submit its application to join the BRICS, a group of emerging economies, after its upcoming summit in October in the city of Kazan, southwestern Russia.

Russian state news agency TASS quoted the Palestinian ambassador to Moscow, Abdel Hafiz Nofal, as saying that Palestine will lodge its application for joining BRICS after attending the summit.

“Russian President Vladimir Putin promised that one session would be fully devoted to Palestine,” the Palestinian ambassador said.

Earlier, Putin invited Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to attend the BRICS summit in Kazan.

“This invitation means that despite all the crimes, killings and destruction in the Gaza Strip, our message is that Palestine wants to live and to develop,” Ambassador Nofal added.

BRICS includes Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. In January, it welcomed Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the UAE as full members.

Why does Brics matter?

BRICS countries include major world powers, such as China and Russia, and countries which are influential on their continent, such as South Africa and Brazil.

The expanded group has a combined population of about 3.5 billion, or 45% of the world’s inhabitants.

Combined, members’ economies are worth more than $28.5tn – about 28% of the global economy.

However, the group argues that Western nations dominate important global bodies such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, which lend money to governments.

It wants to see a “greater voice and representation” for emerging economies.

In 2014, the BRICS nations set up the New Development Bank to lend money to boost infrastructure.

By the end of 2022, it had provided nearly $32bn to emerging nations for new roads, bridges, railways and water supply projects.

This is China’s main aim for BRICS, according to Prof Padraig Carmody from Trinity College Dublin.

“Through BRICS, China is trying to grow its power and influence – especially in Africa,” he says. “It wants to be be the leading voice for the global south.”

The other major world power Russia and China in the group has a different purpose:

“Russia sees [BRICS] as part of its fight against the West, helping it to overcome the sanctions imposed after the invasion of Ukraine,” says Creon Butler of the London-based think tank Chatham House.

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Will a Brics currency replace the dollar?

Nations often use the US dollar to trade between themselves.

Leading politicians in Brazil and Russia have suggested creating a BRICS currency, to reduce the dollar’s dominance. However, this was not discussed at the group’s 2023 summit.

It would be impractical for BRICS nations to create a common currency because their economies are so different, says Professor Carmody.

However, he says it is possible that “they may consider in the future creating some new currency to be used for international trade payments, or a cryptocurrency for international trade”.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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