President Cyril Ramaphosa has spent this last week in Kazan, Russia, for the 2024 BRICS Summit. If you’re guessing that’s controversial timing given the war in Ukraine, you’re right.
BRICS, an alliance originally between Brazil, Russia, India, China, and SA, was designed to bring together the world’s most important developing countries, to challenge the political and economic power of the wealthier nations of North America and Western Europe, as the BBC notes.
BRICS has grown significantly since its formation in 2006, currently representing 43% of the world’s population and contributing around 35% of global GDP. At last year’s summit, four more countries were added: Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates. The Arab nations were a key inclusion: it now means BRICS countries produce about 44% of the world’s crude oil, adding to their collective clout.
Back to Ukraine, South Africa isn’t covering itself in glory with its official position. During a bilateral meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin ahead of the summit, Ramaphosa stated: “We continue to see Russia as a valued ally, as a valued friend who supported us right from the beginning, from the days of our struggle against apartheid, right through to now.”
For those who are pro-democracy, it’s a slap in the face. As opposition DA leader John Steenhuisen noted, “We cannot and will not agree that South Africa should consider an authoritarian regime that is currently violating international law by waging an imperialist war of aggression against a sovereign state as an ally.” As you can imagine, this is yet another strain on the government of national unity coalition between Ramaphosa’s ANC and DA.
The summit has also drawn attention to broader global concerns about the idea of moving away from the dollar as the global standard. Russian President Vladimir Putin, in his opening address, reiterated the need for an alternative international payment system to prevent the United States from using the dollar as a ‘political weapon’.
However, Putin’s remarks conveniently omitted a critical point: the use of the dollar in this context has largely been a response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Since Russia’s full scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the European Union as well as the US have imposed sanctions aiming to curtain Russia’s military and economic strength. Putin’s framing of the de-dollarisation effort strategically ignores that these sanctions are a direct consequence of his illegal war in Ukraine.
We should take note: Brazil and India, too, remain wary of the bloc becoming solely pro-Chinese and anti-Western. For South Africa grapples, the most important thing is not to be anti or pro western in line with other country’s politics: rather to position ourselves for the most favourable outcome for our economy and people.