🇧🇩 BRICS---Can Developing Countries Including Bangladesh Benefit From It?

[Saif]

China urges greater BRICS role as Western sanctions mount

China has urged the BRICS bloc of nations to take on greater responsibilities and establish itself as being inclusive to the world, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said yesterday, in the wake of Western sanctions and trade restrictions imposed on the country.

Many Chinese companies have faced Western sanctions over their support for Russia's war in Ukraine, and the European Commission is set to announce tariffs this week on Chinese EVs in a bid to protect European carmakers.

This week, the Group of Seven wealthy democracies is expected to send a tough warning to smaller Chinese banks to stop helping Russia evade Western sanctions, Reuters reported, citing sources.

 

[Saif]

Bangladesh seeks India’s support to join BRICS under any format: FM

Bangladesh has sought support from India to join BRICS under any format, either as a member or a partner country, said Foreign Minister Hasan Mahmud on Saturday. “We’ve sought support from India to join BRICS under any format,” he said while briefing reporters about the outcomes

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Bangladesh seeks India's support to join BRICS under any format: FM
Published :
Jun 22, 2024 20:51
Updated :
Jun 22, 2024 20:52

Bangladesh has sought support from India to join BRICS under any format, either as a member or a partner country, said Foreign Minister Hasan Mahmud on Saturday.

"We've sought support from India to join BRICS under any format," he said while briefing reporters about the outcomes of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's engagements, including her bilateral meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi, reports UNB.

The Bangladesh foreign minister said India responded positively in this regard (overextending help towards Bangladesh to join BRICS).

If BRICS decides to add new members or partner countries, Bangladesh wants to be associated with BRICS anyway, he said.

BRICS is an intergovernmental organisation with nine member states: Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, and the United Arab Emirates.

The Bangladesh prime minister arrived here on Friday on a two-day state visit to India at the invitation of her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi.

Sheikh Hasina had a tête-à-tête (one-to-one meeting) with Modi, led the Bangladesh delegation at a bilateral meeting, and witnessed the exchange of 10 Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs), including two shared visions and three renewed MoUs at Hyderabad House.

To read the rest of the news, please click on the link above.​

 

[Saif]

Algeria joins BRICS Bank

Algeria has been approved for membership in the BRICS New Development Bank (NDB), the country’s finance ministry has announced.

www.thedailystar.net

Algeria joins BRICS Bank

Algeria has been approved for membership in the BRICS New Development Bank (NDB), the country's finance ministry has announced.

The decision was taken on Saturday and announced by NDB chief Dilma Roussef at a meeting in Cape Town, South Africa.

By joining "this important development institution, the financial arm of the BRICS group, Algeria is taking a major step in its process of integration into the global financial system," the Algerian finance ministry said in a statement

The bank of the BRICS group of nations -- whose name derives from the initials of founding members Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa -- is aimed at offering an alternative to international financial institutions like the World Bank and IMF.

Algeria's membership was secured thanks to "the strength of the country's macroeconomic indicators".

Created in 2015, the NDB's main mission is to mobilise resources for projects in emerging markets and developing countries. It has welcomed several country as new members, including Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Iran and Saudi Arabia.​

 

[Saif]

Xi to attend BRICS

Chinese President Xi Jinping will attend the BRICS summit in Russia next month, China’s foreign minister announced yesterday.

www.thedailystar.net

Xi to attend BRICS

Chinese President Xi Jinping will attend the BRICS summit in Russia next month, China's foreign minister announced yesterday.

The summit of emerging economies will be held from October 22 to 24 in the southwestern Russian city of Kazan, in what the Kremlin hopes will be a chance to expand its influence and forge closer economic alliances, especially with Beijing.

The BRICS group, an acronym for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, represents almost half the world's population and has since expanded to include other major emerging economies including the United Arab Emirates and Iran.​

 

[Krishna with Flute]

More such kind of forums means more decentralization and freedom from dominance of few powerful countries. It is particularly more beneficial for the countries whose voices are not heard.

 

[Bilal9]

Bangladesh seeks India’s support to join BRICS under any format: FM

Bangladesh has sought support from India to join BRICS under any format, either as a member or a partner country, said Foreign Minister Hasan Mahmud on Saturday. “We’ve sought support from India to join BRICS under any format,” he said while briefing reporters about the outcomes

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Bangladesh seeks India's support to join BRICS under any format: FM
Published :
Jun 22, 2024 20:51
Updated :
Jun 22, 2024 20:52
View attachment 6566

Bangladesh has sought support from India to join BRICS under any format, either as a member or a partner country, said Foreign Minister Hasan Mahmud on Saturday.

"We've sought support from India to join BRICS under any format," he said while briefing reporters about the outcomes of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's engagements, including her bilateral meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi, reports UNB.

The Bangladesh foreign minister said India responded positively in this regard (overextending help towards Bangladesh to join BRICS).

If BRICS decides to add new members or partner countries, Bangladesh wants to be associated with BRICS anyway, he said.

BRICS is an intergovernmental organisation with nine member states: Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, and the United Arab Emirates.

The Bangladesh prime minister arrived here on Friday on a two-day state visit to India at the invitation of her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi.

Sheikh Hasina had a tête-à-tête (one-to-one meeting) with Modi, led the Bangladesh delegation at a bilateral meeting, and witnessed the exchange of 10 Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs), including two shared visions and three renewed MoUs at Hyderabad House.

To read the rest of the news, please click on the link above.​

Modi turned down Bangladesh' membership in BRICS I believe. Some friend !!

Some in Bangladesh spun it as "we really didn't want it"....to save face for Hasina.

https://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/323425/brics-expansion-why-bangladesh-could-not-make-it

 

[Krishna with Flute]

There should be more and more such multilateral forum so that monopoly of few countries can be checked. Small countries should have more forum to choose where they can align and which forum serves the best interest of their nation.

 

[Saif]

Pak calls for expansion of BRI at SCO summit

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif yesterday called for the expansion of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to enhance regional cooperation at a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Islamabad.

www.thedailystar.net

Pak calls for expansion of BRI at SCO summit
Indian FM supports regional cooperation but stresses mutual respect as well as territorial integrity

Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif yesterday called for the expansion of China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to enhance regional cooperation at a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Islamabad.

He was addressing a heads of government meeting of the SCO, a Eurasian security and political group formed in 2001, being attended by officials from 11 countries, including host Pakistan, China, Russia and India.

"Flagship projects like the Belt and Road Initiative of President Xi Jinping...should be expanded focusing on developing road, rail and digital infrastructure that enhances integration and cooperation across our region," Sharif said in his speech as the chair of the meeting.

The BRI is a $1 trillion plan for global infrastructure and energy networks that China launched a decade ago to connect Asia with Africa and Europe through land and maritime routes. More than 150 countries, including Russia, have signed up to participate in BRI since Xi unveiled it.

Also in attendance was India' External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, who is the first Indian foreign minister to visit Pakistan in nearly a decade with ties between the nuclear-armed rival neighbours continuing to be frosty.

No bilateral meeting has been planned, both sides have said, although Sharif and Jaishankar did have a short talk when the Indian official attended a dinner hosted by the premier last night.

Jaishankar, in his speech at the meeting, congratulated Pakistan on the presidency of the SCO's Heads of Government Council and extended India's "full support" to Islamabad.

He said India supported regional cooperation but added that mutual respect as well as territorial integrity and sovereignty were essential.

"If activities across borders are characterized by terrorism, extremism and separatism, they are hardly likely to encourage trade, energy flows, connectivity and people-to-people exchanges in parallel," he said in his speech.​

 

[Krishna with Flute]

BRI is dead now CPEC. Batter forget it.

 

[Saif]

Regional & global alliances: past & present

The recent BRICS summit in Kazan was an unqualified success for Russian President Putin. It was his moment to demonstrate to his enemies in the West that despite the sanctions imposed on him over the Ukraine issue, he remains a pivotal force in global politics. The presence of Xi Jinping, Narendra

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Regional & global alliances: past & present
Syed Badrul Ahsan
Published :
Oct 30, 2024 21:54
Updated :
Oct 30, 2024 21:54

The recent BRICS summit in Kazan was an unqualified success for Russian President Putin. It was his moment to demonstrate to his enemies in the West that despite the sanctions imposed on him over the Ukraine issue, he remains a pivotal force in global politics. The presence of Xi Jinping, Narendra Modi and Cyril Ramaphosa at the summit were of course a message to the West that a new alliance of nations, however tentative at the moment, has shaped itself as a counterpoint to the West. To what extent BRICS will play a larger role in the years ahead is, however, a question one cannot quite respond to at this time.

That brings us to the matter of how regional or intercontinental organisations have fared in the past many decades. The plain conclusion is that in a number of instances the results have not been pretty. The formation of the Regional Cooperation for Development (RCD) by Turkey, Pakistan and Iran in the mid-1960s was in the beginning looked upon as a promising new venture in the region. By the end of the decade, however, the RCD lost its shine.

And, of course, political changes in the three countries had little scope to accommodate the organisation. Besides the RCD, there have been bodies like the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which contributed impressively to promoting cooperation among the newly emergent African states in the post-colonial 1960s. But then came a time when the OAU needed to reinvent itself. The reinvention came through a replacement of the body with the African Union (AU).

Questions abound about the effectiveness of the AU, which has quite been helpless in the matter of preventing or rolling back coups d'etat in a number of countries over the last few years. The AU was expected to do for Africa what the EU has been doing for Europe, but given the tribal heritage as well as divergent national interests of its member-states, it has been unable to make much of a headway.

Now take the instance of the Arab League, which has been in existence since 1945. In the mid-1960s and early 1970s, with the voices of Arab nationalism growing increasingly louder in a volatile Middle East, it was a powerful unifying force for the countries it brought together. In recent years, though, it has not quite been able to assert itself over such issues as Palestine and the rising power of Israel in the region. It is an emasculated organisation today.

Two regional bodies, the South East Asia Treaty Organaisation (SEATO) and the Central Treaty Organisation (CENTO), midwifed by the United States (US) in the 1950s with the specific goal of containing communism, eventually died deserved deaths with the change in the landscape of global diplomacy. These two organisations were instruments which prolonged the Cold War and indeed attempted to impede the march of historical change. The demise of SEATO and CENTO were a signal for a new world order to emerge. To what extent that new world order was able to emerge is a question which students of global diplomacy will be able to answer.

But suffice for now to point to the QUAD, a body which, again at the instance of Washington, means to keep an eye on an increasingly ambitious China in the Pacific. The Chinese, since the arrival of communism in Beijing in 1949, have not been known to go for compromise on what they consider to be their national interests. It is therefore to be expected that their goal of getting back Taiwan as an integral part of the People's Republic will not be shaken, QUAD or no QUAD.

Changes in global politics over the past five or so decades have been as dramatic as they have been consequential. The fall of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s swiftly led to a natural dismantling of the Warsaw Pact, a body that was a counterweight to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) during the Cold War. Curiously enough, while the Warsaw Pact went the way of mortality, NATO has not only continued to exist but has also been a contributory factor to the making of such crises as the Ukraine war.

It was NATO's ambition of pushing itself closer to the Russian frontier through Ukraine that aroused President Putin's ire. Obviously NATO's role in the conflict has exacerbated the conflict in Ukraine and damaged the possibility of a peaceful world order through its clear provocation to the Russians. It is now a situation where Putin will not lose and will not permit Zelenskyy and NATO to win. Europe has been pushed to the edge.

Regional cooperation in South Asia was cheerfully looked forward to by the countries in the region when the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) took formal shape in 1985 through the first summit of heads of state and government in Dhaka. Nearly four decades later, SAARC is in a state of the comatose, with none of the member states of the body seemingly inclined toward taking measures for its resuscitation. The tragedy is simple: while other regions around the world move on through interstate organisations, ASEAN for instance, South Asia continues to drift in an atmosphere of uncertainty deepened by hostility defining ties between the states which constitute the region.

And, yes, ASEAN has been an effective body since its formation in 1967. It has been instrumental in promoting the collective economic and political interests of its member-states. One cannot quite say the same about the Non-aligned Movement (NAM). As for the Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC), it needs to spell out a clear vision of the future, politically and economically, it envisages for the nations which are part of its structure.

One organisation which has survived the vicissitudes of time has been the Commonwealth, a body which comprises countries that had once been colonised by Britain but subsequently became sovereign nations. Of late, however, the Commonwealth has welcomed into its fold countries such as Rwanda, Mozambique, Gabon and Togo, which were never under British rule, as members.

The Commonwealth has remained relevant through constantly emphasising its values of democracy, human rights, media freedom, free and fair elections. The recent summit of Commonwealth leaders in Samoa once more underscored these values, a healthy indication of the fact that given determination and a sense of history, regional and global organisations can indeed survive purposefully and adapt to changing times.

Whether BRICS can make a difference in today's world is a question the answer to which is dependent on the leaders of its member countries. In a multi-polar world, it will be regional bodies, stressing economic growth and political cohesion, which will be the trend of the future. A new generation of global leaders will be expected to play the role of statesmen in the transformation.​