Leaders of Russia and China snub Brics summit in sign group's value may be waning
China's 72-year-old leader, Xi Jinping, has attended Brics summits for the past 12 years. No official reason has been given for sending the premier, Li Qiang, other than scheduling conflicts.
Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, is facing an international criminal court arrest warrant and may have decided not to travel to Rio to avoid embarrassing the summit hosts, who are signatories to the ICC statute.
Mongolia has been in an acrimonious legal dispute with the ICC after it did not act on the warrant when Putin visited last year.
Putin abandoned his plans to attend the 2023 Brics summit in South Africa after the president, Cyril Ramaphosa, was unable to offer any guarantees regarding Putin's arrest or otherwise under the warrant.
Putin is accused by the ICC of being instrumental in abducting and deporting tens of thousands of Ukrainian children.
Brics, often described as the developing world's alternative to the G7 group of nations, has undergone a recent rapid expansion, but in the process has diluted its coherence as a body offering an ideological alternative to the western capitalism represented by the G7.
Its founding members were Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, but the group last year expanded to include Indonesia, Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, countries in various stages of economic development and with varying levels of antagonism towards the west. The additions skewed the body towards autocracies, leaving Brazil, South Africa and India uneasy.
Brazil has said the Brics grouping is just one sign of an emerging new world order. Speaking recently at the Overseas Development Institute, the former Brazilian foreign minister and current ambassador to London, Antonio Patriota, said Donald Trump's 'America first' foreign policy would move the world order away from the US as a superpower and towards a multipolar world with power spread more evenly.
'The US, through its policies, including on tariffs and sovereignty, is accelerating the transition to multipolarity in different ways,' Patriota said.
He added that new alliances were likely to develop that would challenge the current distribution of power.
'It's difficult to argue today that Europe converges with the US policy on trade or on security or on sustaining democracy, for example. So where there used to be one unique western pole, now perhaps there are two.'
Brazil, an emerging diplomatic powerhouse in the global south, may benefit from Russia and China's leaders being absent this weekend, since it wants to use the summit to champion a theme of inclusive global governance reform. It would not want the focus to be solely on criticism of western double standards in the Middle East and Ukraine.
The hosts have a set of concrete proposals: the green energy transition, cooperation on vaccines and expanding most-favoured nation status to all countries in the World Trade Organization.
Patriota denied that new multipolarity – a world in which many different cooperative alliances are formed – was inherently unstable, arguing it was unilateralism that had been the more disruptive force.
'There is strong support for preserving multilateralism, but that does not mean that we need to preserve it as it stands,' he said. 'Brazil is arguing we shouldn't wait for another world war, or for something of that nature, or scale, to start reforming. Unless there is a strong movement towards reform now, we run the risk of reaching a tipping point.'
But Dr Christopher Sabatini, a senior fellow for Latin America at Chatham House, has argued Brazil will struggle to impose an agenda on the Brics. 'Brics was an unwieldy group before it opened its membership – even if the stated goals of the emerging-economy alliance were initially laudable and long-overdue,' he wrote recently.
'While UN security council expansion was once a stated goal, China was always likely to block India's accession to the body. Brazil's commitments to reduce carbon emissions were also likely to collide with Saudi Arabia, Russia and the UAE's oil- and gas-based economic interests (though Brazil has doubled down on oil production and exports despite its public rhetoric over climate change).' India is also opposing the idea of a Brics currency as an alternative to the dollar.
Nevertheless, Xi's decision to stay away is puzzling, given the US's retreat from its global leadership role has provided a golden opportunity for China to pick up the mantle.
Dr Samir Puri, the director of the centre for global governance at Chatham House, questioned whether a transition to a new multilateralism was happening. 'It seems that the ending of one international order does not necessarily beget the sudden arrival of another,' he said. 'The vacuums created by the US's sudden retreat from multilateralism and global governance will not be automatically filled by others.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
How tariffs are shifting global supply chains
A 90-day pause on Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs plan is about to expire on Wednesday, which could upend US trading relationships with the rest of the world. But the uncertainty of the last few months has already forced several companies to rethink their supply lines in radical ways. When an Illinois toymaker heard that Trump was introducing tariffs on Chinese imports, he was so incensed that he decided to sue the US government."I'm inclined to stand up when my company is in genuine peril," says Rick Woldenberg, who is the CEO of educational toy firm Learning majority of his company's products are made in China, so the tariffs, which US importers have to pay, not Chinese exporters, are now costing him a says his import taxes bill leapt from around $2.5m (£1.5m) a year to more than $100m in April when Trump temporarily increased tariffs on Chinese imports to 145%. That would have "devastated" the company, he says."This kind of impact on my business is just a little bit hard to wrap my mind around," he US tariffs on Chinese imports now at 30%, that's still unaffordable for many American companies such as Learning in addition to its continuing legal fight, it is changing its global supply chain, moving production from China to Vietnam and two countries, like most others around the world, have seen the US hit them with general 10% tariffs, two-thirds lower than those on China. Although these 10% tariffs are due to run out on Wednesday, 9 July, uncertainly remains over what they may be replaced many Canadian companies, who often trade in both their home country and in the US, are now facing a double hit to their supply hits are the 25% tariffs put in place by Trump on many Canadian imports, and the reciprocal ones of the same level that Canada has placed on a host of American other businesses around the world are looking at exporting less to the US, because their American import partners are having to put up prices to cover the tariffs they now have to pay, which makes their products more expensive on US shelves. At Learning Resources, Mr Woldenberg has now moved about 16% of manufacturing to Vietnam and India. "We have gone through the process of vetting the new factories, training them on what we needed, making sure that things could flow easily, and developing relationships."Yet he admits that there are uncertainties: "We don't know if they can handle the capacity of our business. Much less the whole world moving in there at the same time."He also points out that switching production to another country is expensive to the meantime, his legal case against the US tariffs, called "Learning Resources et al v Donald Trump et al" is continuing its way through the US court May a judge at the US District Court in Washington DC ruled that the tariffs against it were unlawful. But the US government immediately appealed, and Learning Resources still has to pay the tariffs for the time the firm is continuing to move production away from China. Global supply chain expert Les Brand says that it is both expensive and difficult for companies to switch manufacturing to different countries."Trying to find new sources for critical components of whatever you are doing - that's a lot of research," says Mr Brand, who is CEO of advisory firm Supply Chain Logistics."There's a lot of quality testing to do it right. You have to spend the time, and that really takes away from the business focus."He adds: "The knowledge transfer to train a whole new bunch of people on how to make your product takes a lot of time and money. And that effects already razor-thin margins businesses have right now." For Canadian fried chicken chain Cluck Clucks, its supply chain has been significantly impacted by Canada's revenge tariffs on US imports. This is because while its chicken is Canadian, it imports both specialist catering fridges and pressure fryers from the it can't live without the fridges, it has decided to stop buying any more of the fryers. Yet with no Canadian company making alternative ones, it is having to limit its menus at its new is because it needs these pressure fryers to cook its bone-in chicken pieces. The new stores will instead only be able to sell boneless chicken, as that is cooked differently."This was a substantial decision for us, but we believe it's the right strategic move," says Raza Hashim, Cluck Clucks CEO."It's important to note that we do plan to retain the necessary kitchen space in new locations to reintroduce these fryers should the tariff uncertainty be completely resolved in the future."He also warns that with the US fridges now more expensive for the company to buy, the price it charges for its food will likely have to go up. "There is a certain amount of costs we cannot absorb as brands, and we may have to pass those on to consumers. And that is not something we want to do."Mr Hashim adds that the business is continuing with its US expansion plans, and it has set up local supply chains to source American chicken. It currently has one US outlet, in Houston, Texas. In Spain, olive oil producer Oro del Desierto currently exports 8% of its production to the US. It says that the US tariffs on European imports, presently 10%, are having to be passed on to American shoppers. "These tariffs will directly impact the end consumer [in the US]," says Rafael Alonso Barrau, the firm's export company also says it is looking at potentially reducing the volume it sends to the US, if the tariffs make trading there less profitable, and exporting more to other countries instead."We do have other markets where we can sell the product," says Mr Barrau. "We sell in another 33 markets, and with all of them, and our local market, we could cushion US losses."Mr Brand says that firms around the world would have been less impacted if Trump had moved more slowly with his tariffs. "The speed and velocity of these decisions are really making everything worse. President Trump should have gone slower and been more meaningful about these tariffs."Back in Illinois, Mr Woldenberg is also concerned about where Trump will go next in his trade battles."We just have to make the best decision we can, based on the information we have, and then see what happens," he says."I don't want to say 'hope for the best', because I don't believe that hope is a strategy."
Reuters
5 hours ago
- Reuters
Russia's Lavrov meets Iran's Araqchi, renews offer to help solve conflict
July 6 (Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met on Sunday with his Iranian counterpart at the BRICS summit, and restated Moscow's offer to help resolve disputes around Tehran's nuclear programme, the Russian Foreign Ministry said. A ministry statement said Lavrov, in his talks in Rio de Janeiro with Abbas Araqchi, issued a new denunciation of Israeli and U.S. strikes on Iran last month, "including the bombing of nuclear energy infrastructure under safeguards of the International Atomic Energy Agency." Lavrov, the statement said, stressed that all issues surrounding Iran's nuclear programme had to be resolved through diplomacy. "Moscow expressed its readiness to offer its assistance in finding mutually acceptable solutions, including the corresponding initiatives put forward earlier by the Russian president," it said. Araqchi held talks in Moscow in the middle of the 12 days of conflict last month. Iran denies it has any intention of developing nuclear weapons. Russia, which has a strategic partnership with Iran, though without a mutual defence provision, says Tehran has the right to a peaceful nuclear energy programme. Russia has said it is ready to act as a mediator in the crisis pitting Iran against Israel and the United States and has offered to store Iranian uranium.
The Independent
5 hours ago
- The Independent
Scott Bessent spars with CNN host over whether Trump's tariffs count as trade deals
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent reignited his feud with Elon Musk on Sunday during an interview with CNN, where the Cabinet secretary also quibbled with a host over whether the president had made the '90 deals in 90 days' he had promised the American public. Bessent's comments come as the administration is set to hit many U.S. trading partners this month with 'reciprocal' tariffs following the end of a 90-day pause. During that period, the White House discussed the types of trade agreements Donald Trump and his team were set to negotiate with China, the U.K., Canada, and dozens of other countries, which the president has accused of engaging in unfair trade practices. The majority of those deals did not materialize, except for a handful of exceptions. Many issues continue to divide U.S. and Chinese officials, but some export controls instituted by Beijing were lifted after an agreement was inked in late June. On Sunday, Bessent echoed a familiar line from the administration: the insistence that the tariffs Trump was imposing in the absence of formal agreements with foreign governments constituted the 'deals' promised by the White House. 'The president has a reputation, a self-described dealmaker, so why haven't we seen the kind of deals that he promised in the last 90 days?' asked CNN's Dana Bash. "Again, he didn't promise this,' countered Bessent. In reality, it was Trump's trade adviser, Peter Navarro, who set this goal during a Fox Business interview. 'And when we send out the 100 letters to these countries, that will set their tariff rate. So we're going to have 100 done in the next few days,' he continued. Bash responded: 'But that's not a deal. That's a threat.' 'No, that's the level,' said the Treasury secretary. 'That's the deal.' 'President Trump's going to be sending letters to some of our trading partners saying that if you don't move things along, then on August 1st, you will boomerang back to your April 2nd tariff level.' The White House initially announced a slate of 'Liberation Day' tariffs in early April, setting individualized tariff rates for dozens of U.S. trading partners, including some as high as 50 percent. Markets immediately engaged in a sell-off, prompting panic and a reversal by the president. But the end of Trump's 90-day pause is fast approaching, with the official deadline on Wednesday, July 9. So far, administration officials have not indicated that another pause is likely. Administration officials are currently negotiating with the EU, which is among the U.S. trading partners still seeking to avert a massive tariff hike. Before the president was re-elected, the average tariff on goods from the EU imported to the U.S. was just 2 percent. Trump has threatened to mark up tariffs as high as 50 percent. Holger Schmieding, chief economist at Germany's Berenberg bank, said the most likely outcome of the trade talks is that 'the US will agree to deals in which it takes back its worst threats of 'retaliatory' tariffs well beyond 10 percent'. Bessent's support of tariffs was one of several issues that led to his conflict with Elon Musk, the Tesla CEO and former DOGE overlord who joined the administration as a temporary appointee in January. The two argued frequently and even had one physical confrontation, according to news reports, and emerged as sharp personal rivals in addition to being political foes. On Sunday, the Treasury secretary made it clear that there was no love lost between the two men after Musk, who left the administration in May, publicly blew up at the president in a series of Twitter posts about a legislative package Trump had endorsed — the 'big, beautiful bill.' Musk was, and still is, a furious critic of the bill's deficit spending, which is projected to add trillions to the national debt over 10 years, and threatened last week to fund primary challenges against Republicans who voted for the legislation. His threats did not work, and it passed with only a few Republicans dissenting. 'The principles of DOGE were very popular. I think, if you looked at the polling, Elon was not,' Bessent told CNN.
