On 22 August Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva attended the business forum on the first day of the leaders’ summit of the BRICS group of developing economies, comprised of Brazil, Russia, India, China and this year’s host, South Africa.
Analysis:
At the start of the three-day summit in Johannesburg, Lula released an episode of his weekly podcast Conversa com o Presidente, in which he insisted that “we do not want to be a counterpoint to the G7” group of advanced economies, rhetoric in line with his foreign policy which has sought multilateral cooperation regardless of geopolitical tensions. Lula has also been trying to foster ties with G7 countries and he did not share the hostile tone adopted by Russia’s President Vladimir Putin in his pre-recorded video speech shown at the summit’s business forum, in which he criticised the Western sanctions placed on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. Despite divisions among its members looming over the summit, such as the Ukraine issue, Lula did try to highlight some shared goals, such as the addition of new members to the group and further measures to reduce the dominance of the US dollar in global trade.
- Over 20 countries in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia have expressed interest in joining the BRICS as full members. In his podcast, Lula vocally supported the application of Argentina to join the group.
- Despite the global concern about China’s economic slowdown, Lula reiterated that Brazil and China’s economies were big enough for business to be conducted in reais and yuan or in “another currency which we can make, without devaluing or denying our own currencies”.
- In his speech at the business forum, Lula reiterated his criticisms of “traditional financial institutions” and called for the BRICS development bank, the Shanghai-headquartered New Development Bank (NDB), to take a greater role as a platform for countries to trade in their own currency.
- He also used the forum as a chance to promote Brazil’s infrastructure investment programme (PAC) which he launched on 11 August. Lula welcomed investors at the summit to contribute to PAC projects.
Looking Ahead: The topics of increasing investment, de-dollarisation and new members will continue to be discussed by the BRICS leaders, although they are likely to keep playing down the group’s internal divisions, concerns about the Chinese economy, and other looming issues.
