2023-08-23 03:01:00
Desde Washington
The exclusion from the treatment of Argentina’s admission to the BRICS (a block that makes up five of the largest emerging economies) at the Summit that takes place in South Africa is beginning to generate controversy at the international level. Alberto Fernández, the Argentine president, gave up traveling to the meeting, where he was invited to participate as a speaker. Lula, president of Brazil, reacted with undisguised indignation at the change in agenda and assured that she was going to insist on the point. As the hours went by, it began to become clear that it was not a resolution against Argentina but that two other countries, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia, whose incorporation was taken for granted, were also left out due to the change in the topics to be discussed by from South Africa. Now everyone is looking closely at the threads that move above this country. In Washington, where the Argentine delegation is preparing for a key meeting with the IMF this Wednesday, very few talk about the subject, but when it is mentioned many look suspicious and the silences lengthen.
In the words of one of the key participants in this Argentine visit to the US capital, “the IMF and the BRICS are two very different families”, suggesting a clash of interests between one group and the other. Nobody says it publicly, but nobody stops thinking that the Fund’s strategists (the United States at the head) will not have been bothered at all that the “family” headed by China and Russia, and also has Brazil as a relevant member, You have not been able to expand the table to incorporate new members to the family group.
Saudi Arabia, Argentina and Indonesia head a list of applicants to be part of the BRICS that also includes Egypt, Iran, Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates. India and South Africa had previously expressed their satisfaction with the expansion of the group to the summit, but later, when it came to making decisions, their attitude changed. They demanded a differential status for the five current members compared to the newcomers, but it is not clear how it would be implemented.
Brazil, whose weight in the group visibly increased when Lula returned to government in the face of the disinterest shown by the government of Jair Bolsonaro, gave the group’s actions a greater impact. Hand in hand with Lula, Dilma Rousseff came to the presidency of the BRICS Bank, and Argentina to present her application to join the bloc.
And it is that the Bank of the BRICS itself and the proposals for financing infrastructure works in China, through the projects of the Strip and the Silk Road, change the world scenario and place next to the traditional international organizations of credit (IMF and World Bank), a weighty rival capable of challenging its hegemony.
The vision of Brazil was once again faced with that of South Africa in this summit, and Argentina was left in the middle of the tussle. “I defend that Argentina can participate in the BRICS, either now or in another meeting, but it has to be. It is very important for Brazil that we can grow together,” said the Brazilian president at a press conference in Johannesburg. In a message read by his foreign minister, the Chinese head of government, Xi Jinping, anticipated that “we will expand a BRICS plus model, actively advance membership expansion, deepen solidarity and cooperation with other emerging markets and developing countries.” . And he warned: “Whatever resistance arises, the BRICS are a positive and stable force for the world. We will continue to grow.”
The Summit will end on Thursday, the day on which the Argentine Foreign Minister will participate via zoom. The brake that South Africa, surely with the impetus of two important partners such as Great Britain and the United States, managed to impose on the expansion of the most serious rival to North American world hegemony, could only be a delay. But from the point of view of the Argentine government, it is not ignored that the internal disputes in the country also “stick the tail” in the conflict.
In Brazil, they do not look so badly at the delay in the definition of Argentine entry, if this also allows us to pause to see how the country resolves its future government. The interest of a Sergio Massa government in joining the BRICS is ruled out. On the other hand, if Javier Milei were the victor, not only does nobody believe that he could be interested in the BRICS but, in the case of Brazil, they already tell whoever wants to listen: the Lula government is not interested in a government ” right-wing” Argentine at his side or “contaminating” the BRICS.
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