BRICS ON THE SCENE

The 6th summit of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) has become one of the most notable international policy forums lately. It should not be viewed just as a step towards the formation of an interstate association of major developing countries. There is no doubt that this event should also be analyzed in the context of growing geopolitical confrontation between the West and Russia - one of the most influential powers forming the BRICS. 

Russia returns to Latin America 

En route to the BRICS summit held in Brazil, Russian President Vladimir Putin made a tour of Latin America, a move indicating the Kremlin's readiness to oppose the West at a global level. At the same time, the tour was a second, after Putin's recent visit to China, demonstration to the West of a breech in international isolation to which the USA and the EU are trying to doom Russia in response to its recent annexation of Crimea and Moscow's role in Ukrainian events in general. The Russian leader made his first stopover in Havana, the capital of Cuba which was the main stronghold of the USSR in the Western Hemisphere in Soviet times. The results of President Putin's talks with Cuban President Raul Castro has shown that Moscow intends to regain its political and economic presence on the Island of Freedom and Havana itself is fully prepared to assist in this process. Russia even forgave Cuba 90 per cent of its 32bn dollar debt with the bulk of it owed by the island nation to Moscow since Soviet times. The remainder of Cuba's debt will be repaid over 10 years in 20 equal semi-annual installments. Moreover, that money will be used to fund investment projects in Cuba itself. 

Another important result of the visit is agreements that open up prospects for Russia to explore oil fields in the Caribbean Sea. For Cuba, this actually means creating its own offshore oil industry. As for Russia, it can be pleased with itself entering as a strong energy player directly into a zone of vital interests of the USA. Putin's statement that Russia is ready to help Cuba to overcome the "illegitimate blockade", that it the US embargo on trade with Havana, should be regarded as a riposte to Washington. 

Putin's visit to Nicaragua has confirmed Russia's ambition to restore its presence in Latin America. The Sandinista leadership of that country was an ally to the USSR during the Cold War period. As the Soviet Union collapsed, the Sandinistas lost power but, since 2007, they have been running one of the most anti-US-minded countries in Central America under the leadership of Daniel Ortega. Putin sent a clear signal that Russia is ready to resuscitate fully-fledged cooperation with Nicaragua, all the more so due to fertile ground formed in the past few years: the Ortega government has supported all high-profile foreign policy actions by the Kremlin. Thus for instance, after the Russian-Georgian war in 2008, they followed the Kremlin in recognizing the independence of Georgia's breakaway autonomies Abkhazia and South Ossetia. In pursuit of its pro-Russian policy, Nicaragua supported to the annexation of Crimea, too. When hosting Putin, Ortega made it clear that his government would further "take part in Russia's initiatives related to maintaining peace both throughout the world and in individual regions, in your region". 

The Russian president's voyage to Argentina took place at a moment very significant for Buenos Aires. Financial crisis is hanging over Argentina. President of the country Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner is carrying on difficult negotiations with New York-based hedge funds over outstanding debts since the country's default in 2001. The USA demands that Buenos Aires should pay about 1.5bn dollars before the end of July but the Argentine authorities view this as the USA striving to enslave their country. Kirchner even said that Argentina has been attacked by "US financial vultures". All that tangibly spoiled relations between the USA and Argentina. The latter found itself an ally in Russia and its president and this could not have come at a better time. 

In all likelihood, the energy sector is going to feature a breakthrough in Argentine-Russian cooperation. During Putin's visit to Buenos Aires, an agreement was signed envisaging the construction by the Rosatom company of two nuclear reactors in Argentina on soft terms for the Argentine side.   

Putin's visit to Brazil was also marked by signing important agreements in the energy sector. Rosatom and Brazil's Camargo Correa signed a memorandum on mutual understanding envisaging the construction in Brazil of a nuclear power station and a spent fuel storage facility. In addition, an action plan was signed for trade and economic cooperation between Russia and Brazil, for projects in innovative technologies, agriculture, science and engineering. One can view BRICS as the main platform for Russian-Brazilian cooperation. The first day of its summit took place in the Brazilian city of Fortaleza and the second in the country's capital Brasilia. 

Big Five as an alternative to western domination

Originally it seemed that this format had no clear perspective. The BRIC abbreviation joined Brazil, Russia, India and China only for investment purposes. Yet the idea of economic integration among the biggest developing countries which organized their first summit in 2009 did not fizzle out. Moreover, South Africa's accession to the foursome in 2011 which changed the abbreviation to BRICS showed that even such different countries had found common ground. That was due to coincidence of their strategic interests in the context of joint efforts to counter Western, above all US, leadership on the world scene. Interesting enough is the fact that even controversies between G5 member states have not become an obstacle on that path (at least so far). For example, India and China nearly competing on a number of local and regional problems and even raising territorial claims to each other are nonetheless capable of finding common solutions in the face of common challenges at a global scale. The format of the BRICS with its members seeking to prevent the West from ousting them to the sidelines of the world economy, is apparently becoming the most attractive platform for this kind of cooperation. Moreover, they seek to make up the core of a future global order meeting chiefly the interests of the developing world. 

These goals motivated the sides to sign their agreements at the 6th BRICS summit to set up the New BRICS Development Bank and a currency reserves pool of BRICS member states. The BRICS bank is called to become one of the world's largest financial institutions. Its authorized capital will total 100bn dollars. The scale of transactions within the currency reserve pool may reach 100bn dollars. The BRICS' financial institutions are in essence opposed to the World Bank and the IMF. Putin made a noteworthy statement at the summit: "The international monetary system itself depends a lot on the US dollar, or, to be precise, on the monetary and financial policy of the US authorities. The BRICS countries want to change this."

One more step towards overcoming the Western domination on the international scene is that the BRICS countries confirmed the need for a comprehensive reform of the UN and in particular the Security Council. As is laid down in the Fortaleza Declaration, the reform must be carried out in order to make the global organization more representative and efficient. China and Russia as permanent members of the UN Security Council spoke for strengthening the role of Brazil, India and South Africa in UN activity.  

In this context, one more riposte by Putin to the USA attracts attention. In his opinion, the BRICS countries should think together about a system of measures that "would help prevent the harassment of countries that do not agree with some foreign policy decision made by the US and their allies". It is obvious that this statement is the Russian leader's reaction to sanctions being applied by the USA and the European Union against Russia in response to its policy with respect to Ukraine.  

Thus BRICS has made a bid for becoming one of the pillars of a would-be bipolar world. The G5 seeks to become a gravitation centre for all developing countries. One can expect other countries playing an important role in their regions to join this format in the near future; for instance, Argentina, Indonesia, Iran and even Turkey whose chances of becoming an equal member of Euro-Atlantic integration are melting away with every passing year. Alongside this, BRICS is still not an international organization. But the summit in Brazil made an important evolutionary shift: the Fivesome moved from declaring intentions to specific actions. This process is likely to be continued at the next BRICS summit scheduled to be held in Ufa in 2015. Russia will expectedly "push through" Putin's initiative to establish an energy association of the BRICS similar to that functioning under the Organization for Economic Coope-ration and Development (OECD) which unites many European states, Japan and the USA and to which, by the way, Russia and China are not admitted. 

It is also beyond doubt that Moscow will try to use the forthcoming BRICS summit in Ufa for presentation of the integration project it is promoting in the post-Soviet space: the Eurasian Economic Union. 

Meanwhile, considering Russia's growing geopolitical ambitions, a rather important question arises to which there is still no unambiguous answer. Will Russia's political and economic elite have enough strength and capabilities to fully live up to the Kremlin's declared goal to become one of the counterbalances to the West on the world scene and to meet the challenges of a new era which is taking shape before our eyes and in which many analysts can already see the contours of a second version of the "Cold War"?