2024 BRICS Summit

[mike]

What do you guys think of the 2024 BRICS Summit? The US obviously ignores it as it is made up of anti-Western interests. Does the summit matter much in the global scheme, especially given that Russia, who has provided its president the past year, has a GDP less than that of California or Texas?

Near the end of the summit, the BBC got to ask Putin directly about the Ukraine war.



Here's a thread on the summit by some young independent reporter. I only include it because of his note that India, a part of the summit, is a supplier of weapons to Israel, which seems an odd stance for members of BRICS.

[Szdfan]

Does the summit matter much in the global scheme, especially given that Russia, who has provided its president the past year, has a GDP less than that of California or Texas?

I think it does. All together, the countries that are part of BRICS make up 28% of the world economy.

Putin is clearly hoping to use BRICS and these relationships with the Global South to circumvent Western sanctions and to develop an alternative financial system dominated by the US. I can see why he wants to do that. I think this will be hard to -- even though India and China are both part of BRICS, they are also bitter rivals and getting them to agree on anything is a challenge.

[ohio jones]

Here's a thread on the summit by some young independent reporter. I only include it because of his note that India, a part of the summit, is a supplier of weapons to Israel, which seems an odd stance for members of BRICS.

Given Israel's experience with supplying weapons to Hezbollah, they might want to be a bit cautious.

[Ken]

Here's a thread on the summit by some young independent reporter. I only include it because of his note that India, a part of the summit, is a supplier of weapons to Israel, which seems an odd stance for members of BRICS.

Given Israel's experience with supplying weapons to Hezbollah, they might want to be a bit cautious.

Israel is supplying weapons to Hezbollah?

I expect that Israeli-Indian relations are likely to strengthen in the future (as well as Israeli-Turkish relations) as Israel seeks out allies to replace what might be an increasingly fickle United States. An Israeli-Indian alliance actually makes obvious sense as both countries have reason to be concerned with Islamic extremism. And both are opponents of Iran and Pakistan. Israel has the technical expertise that India desires with their arms industry. And India has the weapons manufacturing capacity that Israel desires.

I also don't think that a global BRICS alliance against the US and EU is going to get very far even if that is what Russia wants. Most countries like India and China are going to prefer economic ties to the US and EU rather than Russia. That is where the money is. China, for example, is investing unbelievable sums of money into EVs and electrification generally. That only makes sense if the Europe and North America are the ultimate markets, not Russia.

[ohio jones]

Here's a thread on the summit by some young independent reporter. I only include it because of his note that India, a part of the summit, is a supplier of weapons to Israel, which seems an odd stance for members of BRICS.

Given Israel's experience with supplying weapons to Hezbollah, they might want to be a bit cautious.

Israel is supplying weapons to Hezbollah?

Disguised as pagers, yes.

[mike]

Here's a thread on the summit by some young independent reporter. I only include it because of his note that India, a part of the summit, is a supplier of weapons to Israel, which seems an odd stance for members of BRICS.

Given Israel's experience with supplying weapons to Hezbollah, they might want to be a bit cautious.

Israel is supplying weapons to Hezbollah?

I expect that Israeli-Indian relations are likely to strengthen in the future (as well as Israeli-Turkish relations) as Israel seeks out allies to replace what might be an increasingly fickle United States. An Israeli-Indian alliance actually makes obvious sense as both countries have reason to be concerned with Islamic extremism. And both are opponents of Iran and Pakistan. Israel has the technical expertise that India desires with their arms industry. And India has the weapons manufacturing capacity that Israel desires.

I also don't think that a global BRICS alliance against the US and EU is going to get very far even if that is what Russia wants. Most countries like India and China are going to prefer economic ties to the US and EU rather than Russia. That is where the money is. China, for example, is investing unbelievable sums of money into EVs and electrification generally. That only makes sense if the Europe and North America are the ultimate markets, not Russia.

It makes sense to me that China and India just want to grow their global market share of goods and also hedge against the negative effects of potentially more US tariffs should Trump get elected. But there's no way that they would want to risk upsetting the US and the EU, so I assume their partnership with Russia is a really interesting relationship, with as much of it as possible kept low-key or even secret in order to protect their relationships with the west.

[Szdfan]

It makes sense to me that China and India just want to grow their global market share of goods and also hedge against the negative effects of potentially more US tariffs should Trump get elected. But there's no way that they would want to risk upsetting the US and the EU, so I assume their partnership with Russia is a really interesting relationship, with as much of it as possible kept low-key or even secret in order to protect their relationships with the west.

All countries act out of their own self-interest and often that means a delicate diplomatic dance with rivals as they jostle with each other for their own advantage without blowing things up (both metaphorically and literally).

[mike]

It makes sense to me that China and India just want to grow their global market share of goods and also hedge against the negative effects of potentially more US tariffs should Trump get elected. But there's no way that they would want to risk upsetting the US and the EU, so I assume their partnership with Russia is a really interesting relationship, with as much of it as possible kept low-key or even secret in order to protect their relationships with the west.

All countries act out of their own self-interest and often that means a delicate diplomatic dance with rivals as they jostle with each other for their own advantage without blowing things up (both metaphorically and literally).

Scary game

[Szdfan]

It makes sense to me that China and India just want to grow their global market share of goods and also hedge against the negative effects of potentially more US tariffs should Trump get elected. But there's no way that they would want to risk upsetting the US and the EU, so I assume their partnership with Russia is a really interesting relationship, with as much of it as possible kept low-key or even secret in order to protect their relationships with the west.

All countries act out of their own self-interest and often that means a delicate diplomatic dance with rivals as they jostle with each other for their own advantage without blowing things up (both metaphorically and literally).

Scary game

Absolutely. Some of the stories about US-Soviet diplomacy during the Cold War are terrifying.

I recommend checking out the movie "Bridge of Spies" about the Gary Frances Powers / Rudolf Abel swap between the US and USSR in 1962. The film does a good job showing is the way countries negotiate and jostle with each other for their self-interests. Lawyer James Donovan goes to Berlin to negotiate the Powers / Abel swap. While there, he learns about the arrest by the GDR of American student Frederic Pryor and tries to negotiate for his release as well.

Each side wants something --

1) The US wants Prowers and Pryor.
2) The USSR wants Abel.
3) The GDR wants recognition and legitimacy from the US and to be treated as a major partner in this prisoner swap (i.e. they want to be treated as an equal in this swap, which the USSR doesn't want to do).

So the film deals with the delicacies of negotiation -- trying to give each side something they want, while also convincing them to compromise and give up something during a time of crisis and conflict (the building of the Berlin Wall). I think a lot of relationships between nations are similar to that.