Tehran, The 14th BRICS summit was held this week focusing on strengthening economic cooperation between members and partners of the grouping. Iran participated at presidential level in this summit and could gain attention due to its varied capacities in energy, transportation, trade, and economy.
Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi who was invited by the Chinese President Xi Jinping to attend the summit gave a speech, elaborating on Iran’s viewpoints on the most important international issues and expansion of cooperation with other countries.
President Raisi called on BRICS members to strengthen this global platform for the effective role-playing of independent multilateral institutions in achieving homogeneous development and world peace.
BRICS is an acronym coined to refer to five major emerging economies, namely Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. The recent summit was themed “Foster High-quality BRICS Partnership, Usher in a New Era for Global Development.”
The summit is held in a situation where the world economy has faced severe difficulties due to the coronavirus pandemic, Ukraine war, and broad drought, which makes it even more important, as the expansion of ties between BRICS members can help global economic growth.
Why is BRICS important?
As a grouping beyond continents, BRICS has the potential to create a new structuring for the global economy and politics. It can make a vocal contribution to international economic and political gatherings and challenge the current world order, as Europe and the United States have no presence in the grouping.
Currently, two BRICS members – Russia and China – are permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and three other members have aspirations to become permanent Security Council members to modify the global political and financial structure.
If Iran and other powerful countries join the grouping, it can be even stronger and challenge Western policies.
After 16 years since the establishment of the grouping, there have been few signs of cooperation between the BRICS and Western countries, as it has tried to expand intergroup interactions as was seen in the sanctions imposed against Russia in the Ukraine crisis. The US is an opponent of BRICS and along with its Western allies has always tried to undermine developing countries.
The BRICS has about half of the world’s population and 25 to 28 percent of the world economy. The grouping supports developing countries and the global south and tries to balance the global economy against the Western monetary and banking system.
The BRICS has tried to counter the Western financial entities like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund by establishing the New Development Bank and a shared currency reserve.
Some experts believe that the global economy is shifting to a multipolar system, where emerging economies can play a more important role and the BRICS is a big force moving towards that end.
Iran’s unique geographical position and its capacities in the fields of energy, transit, and trade have caused the BRICS members to pay special attention to Iran, as a golden route to connect the East to the West.
Iran joined the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in December last year and joining the BRICS can be a booster to Iran’s economic diplomacy which is aimed at neutralizing Western sanctions.
Source: Islamic Republic News Agency – IRNA
