BRICS—Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa—is the most dynamic economic grouping to ever emerge or to inferentially compete with the traditional western economic blocs led by the US. Though the members are much less than the 195 countries in the world today, geographically four of its members, namely Brazil, China, India and Russia rank as among the biggest in land area, with Russia having an area of 17.1 million square kilometers. In terms of population, four of its members, namely Brazil, India, China and Russia stand as among the biggest, with China having the highest in the world with a population of 1,388,232,693 billion as of 2016.
Although the founding members have not issued a declaration to compete with the existing financial institutions created by the US and its Western European allies including Japan, neither has the group taken the cudgels to revive the antagonistic Cold War posturing that brought economic ruin to them instead. Nonetheless, BRICS, since its founding in 2009, has phenomenally evolved and is causing much anxiety for the US and its allies all feeling the breeze of changing winds blowing from west to east.
Among the top 10 economies of the world, China now ranks no. 2. It is predicted by many to surpass the US anytime as the world’s leading economy not to mention the serious drawback of the US being the biggest debtor-nation in the world today with debts amounting to $19.8 trillion. Adding economic power, two other members, India and Brazil, are included in the world’s top ten economies. Taking their economies and population together, they already account to 23 percent of the world’s economy and 43 percent of the world’s population.
Unlike those groupings created by the West, member-countries are fully conscious that their organization must live up to their role of promoting peace by possibly avoiding mixing up economic development with international politics which is rooted on national interest. Unlike the traditional military alliances which has for its object of achieving strategic advantage or parity of forces, BRICS aims to achieve a variant approach based on an inter-connective, integrated and cohesive economic development simplified in that golden rule of win-win solution.
As the US and its Western allies continue to pursue the interventionist approach of relying on alliances, it has always brought mankind to the doorstep of war. According to Forbes, the US in 2016 remains the highest in incurring a defense expenditure of $611 billion or representing about 36 percent of the world’s total. This is followed by China with $215 billion or 13 percent; Russia $69.2 billion or 4.1 percent; Saudi Arabia $63.7 billion or 3.8 percent; India $55.9 or 3.3 percent, France $55.7 billion or 3.3 percent; UK with $48.3 billion or 2.9 percent; Japan with $46.1 billion or 2.67 percent; Germany with $41.1 billion or 2.4 percent; and South Korea with $36.8 billion or 2.2 percent. What is revealing is North Korea, considered by the US as the most troublesome state, spent only about $7.5 billion for its defense in 2017 which is not even included in the list of the top 25 countries spending for their defense, a study made by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
US defense expenditures in comparison to its NATO allies already indicate that it is the one propping up the alliance, which equivocally mean it has a greater say on the decision-making process. While on the surface, NATO presents itself as a formidable alliance, underneath is the increasing rumblings and disenchantment among allies in analyzing the objective of the alliance, indicating that each has a different national interest but relying on the framework of the alliance. This resulted in NATO supporting the interventionist policy of the US in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria and in advancing NATO’s defense perimeter further to Eastern Europe with some of its members questioning their contribution which eats up much of their national budget. In 2016, the US has contributed $649.931 billion or 72.2 percent to the NATO alliance followed by the United Kingdom with $59.699 billion or 6.6 percent; France with $43.864 billion or 4.9 percent; Germany with $39.743 billion or 4.4 percent.
On the other hand, the decision by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to attend the BRICS summit at Xiamen after that long standoff over Dokhlam Plateau in Bhutan was telling that the two leaders would not allow their political differences to override the beneficial prospects of economic development agenda. This now explains why BRICS, in so short a time, has managed to secure financial support from member-states. It is the value of economic inter-connectivity that guides the members to cherish political stability more than anything else. In the St. Petersburg summit in 2013, China committed $41 billion for the pool; Brazil, India and Russia $18 billion each; and South Africa $5 billion. The New Development Bank, which had an initial capitalization of $100 billion, has a reserved currency pool worth over $100 billion. By the end of October 2014, Brazil trimmed down its US government holding to $261.7 billion; India $77.5 billion; China $1.25 trillion; South Africa $10.3 billion.
The approach made by BRICS is a move towards a positive direction. As Xinhua wrote in an editorial, “Committing to the common prosperity and development of all the countries in the world, BRICS has become an increasingly important building block of the global economy. First, the establishment of the NDB (New Development Bank)—and the CRA (Contingent Reserve Arrangement) will inject dynamism into the cooperation among BRICS countries and set an example for the South-South cooperation. The bank and the fund will enhance the economic autonomy of BRICS countries. They also have great significance for helping BRICS nations and even more developing countries to obtain funds for infrastructure projects as well as to counter emergency solvency crisis or liquidity crisis. The cooperative mechanism of BRICS countries has become a paradigm and important platform for the South-South Cooperation. x x x Second, the set up of the NDB and the CRA shows that BRICS countries have enough strength and confidence as they have great market potential and policy space.”
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