... global governance. On the other hand, the issue of the BRICS expansion that emerged in May 2022 suggests that rather than the aggregation of regional integration groups of the Global South under the banner of BRICS+ a different track is entertained by China and its BRICS partners that targets increasing the membership of the core of the Global South.
Hence, the current dilemma of the Global South is the following: to prioritize the expansion in the core, or to place the emphasis on creating a horizontal network ...
... logistical, and other mechanisms alternative to those of the West is actively promoted.
The
second scenario
is the increasingly dominant role of China, the growing dependence of other countries on it, especially of Russia, and the transformation of BRICS into a mutual aid fund, where China will support its partner countries through the New Development Bank and other instruments, while pushing its own agenda and interests. This scenario is already, if partially, the case. It is no secret that access to additional resources of the NDB ...
... weight in their respective regions that may also increasingly be involved in R5+ financial transactions.
This year the R5+ initiative should be underpinned by the BRICS+ platform launched by China in 2017 and expected to be rekindled this year during China’s BRICS Chairmanship. The BRICS+ initiative has the potential to expand the scope for using national currencies via strengthening the trade and investment cooperation between the BRICS economies and their regional partners. An important role in the nexus ...
... relevance of a regional approach that prioritizes greater cooperation between regional integration arrangements where BRICS economies are members as well as their respective regional development institutions.
What happened in the span of the 5 years between China’s chairmanship in BRICS in 2017 and 2022? It appears that a lot of the developments in the BRICS universe were associated with the advancement of regional initiatives:
The launching of the RCEP project led by China and the ASEAN economies
The launching of the African Continental ...
... innovation among the advanced economies in the preceding decades. In this respect, a closer economic partnership between India and China would redound significantly to development areas such as Eurasian connectivity, the growth in the regional partners of the ... ... growth. One of the more advanced companies in this area is Softline, a Russian IT-company that is targeting greater expansion in BRICS+ markets. Earlier this year the company acquired 95% of the Indian IT company Embee Software, while in 2016 it acquired ...
... going to lose a lot if they have to take sides in this forthcoming US-China rivalry. On the contrary, it is in their best interests to confront this bipolarity and to mitigate it to the extent possible with a new emphasis on multilateralism.
India, China and Russia are all members of BRICS and of SCO; Moscow could work harder making these institutions more efficient in reaching common denominators for even highly sensitive security and development issues. There is also a separate mechanism of the Russia-India-China trilateral consultations,...
... which are vital components for a successful streaming media.
Another important reason why a joint effort would be more able to compete with the giants like Netflix than any service from a particular the BRICS country is the massive size of the combined BRICS film market. In 2019, China was the world’s
second largest theatrical film market
, India — seventh largest, Russia — tenth; combined BRICS film market would be the world’s largest. Many of these consumers are now turning to digital entertainment services, and this ...
... Chinese-Indian border conflict and the failure of yet another PRC-India attempt to consolidate partner relations. Rivalry is still the prevailing aspect of the two countries’ bilateral relations. This is certainly having a negative impact on the viability of BRICS and the SCO.
China’s successes in combating COVID-19 at home (particularly against the background of unsuccessful efforts in other countries), the aid it rendered to others (again, against the background of the US failure to provide the same kind of aid), greater ...
... In order to aspire to have a global impact on the evolving global governance construct of the world economy the BRICS need to form an effective platform for extending their economic cooperation to the Global South. Such a platform may be based on the BRICS-plus initiative launched by China, with the aggregation of regional integration blocks from the developing world serving as the core of such a platform.
Perhaps the most effective way in which the BRICS could prove to be instrumental in rendering the construct of the world economy ...
... Post-Soviet economic integration, which was launched in 2009 as part of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), acquired a Central Asian accent.
Bilateral relations and multilateral formats — in particular, as part of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, BRICS and RIC (Russia, India, China) — have created conditions in which Russia, neither the largest nor a dominant player, has so far been able to maintain balance with more powerful or advanced countries and stand up for its interests more or less effectively.
The new quality of ...
