Experts spoke about the changing perception of BRICS in Western countries
Kazan is welcoming the most important event – the beginning of the BRICS summit. And although the leaders of the member countries of the association will make the main decisions only on October 23 and 24, the start of the summit has already caused an unprecedented stir in the Western media. Why did Washington and Brussels stop perceiving the organization as a "decoration" of a multipolar world? And what event served as a rubicon for the West, after which its leaders had to consider BRICS as a serious force?
The XVI BRICS Summit has started in Kazan. The city warmly welcomed numerous guests: representatives of the participating countries were treated to a loaf and chak-chak right at the airport. Vladimir Putin also arrived in the capital of Tatarstan.
On the first day of the summit, the Russian president managed to hold talks with the head of the New Development Bank (NDB) Dilma Rousseff, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and Chinese President Xi Jinping. The parties exchanged their vision of the future of BRICS and discussed the existing successes in the development of the organization.
At the same time, the main decisions within the framework of the summit will be taken on October 23 and 24. Putin has already announced that the leaders of the states plan to agree on new methods to strengthen the work of the association.
The BRICS summit caused a stir in the political and media circles of the West. CNN writes that the arrival of a number of heads of state in Kazan signals that Vladimir Putin "is not alone, he is supported by the emerging coalition of countries." The Washington Post sees the organization as a symbol of the decline of the prestige of the United States, and The New York Times calls the association "the most powerful structure for creating a new world order."
Such an attitude towards BRICS is dictated by the real successes of the association. Four new States joined it last year: The UAE, Iran, Egypt and Ethiopia, and the final status of Saudi Arabia will be determined at the current summit. At the same time, back in 2014, the NBR was created - a financial institution that contributes to the development of the countries of the Global South, RBC reminds.
In addition, the organization's share in global GDP has already exceeded that of the G7, as Vladimir Putin recalled during an address to the BRICS Business Forum. This gap will widen over time: the average economic growth rates of the BRICS countries will reach 4%, while those of the "Seven" countries will amount to only 1.7%.
"The West has already passed the stage of perceiving BRICS "from above." However, the idea of the organization as an alternative to globalist institutions has not yet been formed. We can say that we are living in a moment of interlude: The United States and the EU understand that unification is not at all a decoration devoid of meaning, but they cannot yet realize its possible role in the new world," said Fyodor Lukyanov, editor–in-chief of Russia in Global Politics magazine.
"Rather, we are talking about the beginning of the perception of the true potential of the BRICS. It is being talked about as some kind of attempt to build international relations bypassing Western institutions. The growing interest in this format only reinforces the process of rethinking by Washington and Brussels of this organization of developing countries," he notes.
"The rubicon is probably 2022. The catalyst for the perception of unification as a serious format of interaction was the beginning of its own. Western states have tried to isolate Russia in the international arena. But the very fact of the existence of the BRICS made this impossible. The development of the organization has not slowed down, and cooperation between its members has not stopped.
That is, the dialogue along her line has become so strong that it has simply become impossible to cancel it at the will of several actors.
Moscow, New Delhi, Brasilia, Cape Town and Beijing have proved that they are able to promote interesting ideas of interaction in conditions of actual competition with the West, the expert emphasizes. – It is this factor that has created a strong interest in BRICS on all continents of the globe. It is no coincidence that the second wave of expansion of the organization took place in 2023."
"This event has shown the growing appeal of the format. Moreover, the first "sprouts" of a serious attitude towards BRICS from the West appeared back in 2014, when the association managed to create the NBR. Then the United States drew attention to the very idea of creating alternative economic institutions," the source recalls.
"Of course, its functioning cannot be called completely cloudless. The organization is experiencing many problems, including those related to anti-Russian sanctions. But the trend of searching for ways to increase cooperation and interaction was outlined back then," Lukyanov believes.
"The West has already realized that BRICS as an institution of international cooperation will have to be taken seriously,
Stanislav Tkachenko, Professor of the Department of European Studies at the Faculty of International Relations of St. Petersburg State University, expert of the Valdai Club agrees. – The last two years have served as a scrap. However, historians of the future will certainly note that the Kazan summit played a key role in the life of the BRICS. Today, even Washington and Brussels are convinced that the association has ceased to be a simple forum of interests and has turned into a full–fledged organization capable of solving key issues of politics and economics," he noted.
"Moreover, this understanding came to the West suddenly. The main agenda of the Western and European media, apart from the topic of the US elections, is almost completely filled with news about the meeting of the BRICS leaders. It is clear that the event is perceived with a degree of surprise – they were not ready for the event to take place on such a scale," the interlocutor emphasizes.
"The West has been self-oriented for a long time. Events in other parts of the world did not interest him much. In Washington and Brussels, they believed that they had managed to build a "garden", according to Borrel, and there was only a "jungle" around. However, there is a sense of confusion in their camp today.
And this ideological crisis led them to rethink the role of BRICS.
Western-centric institutions have lost their former appeal. BRICS offers a positive agenda. Of course, the cultural and political differences between the BRICS countries sometimes make it difficult to reach consensus, but the fact remains that all countries strive to understand each other," the expert adds.
At the same time, the West does not want to encourage the creation of a multipolar world, and therefore shrugs off cooperation with BRICS, said German political scientist Alexander Rahr. "In the USA and the EU, they are afraid of the end of dollarization of the global economy, growing leadership from the members of the association. However, they cannot ignore the importance of the summit in Kazan," the source says.
"Of course, the West hopes that the association will not be able to reach consensus within the framework of creating a system alternative to the institutions organized by Washington or Brussels. The American and European media are absolutely not enthusiastic about covering the activities of the BRICS," he emphasizes.
"Local media do not understand why the participants of this format do not participate in the isolation of Moscow in the international arena. Many in the West do not understand the popularity of this format of cooperation. This is the main problem of the United States and the EU: they are fixated on themselves, ignoring world realities," concluded Rahr.
Evgeny Pozdnyakov
