Brics group: Russia and China allies want currency to take on US dollar

South Africa could host Russian leader Vladimir Putin for the August summit of Brics, as the group’s member nations consider a challenge to the West’s economic dominance.

Indian foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar with Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov in Cape Town. Picture: Reuters/The Times

A group of nations dominated by China and Russia is considering its own trading currency to counter the US dollar as it seeks to challenge the economic dominance of the West.

Foreign ministers from the Brics group – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – have been joined by their counterparts from more than a dozen applicants, including Saudi Arabia, Iran and Egypt, as it seeks to establish itself as a serious economic and political force to rival the G7.

The two-day gathering in Cape Town – overshadowed by Russia’s war on Ukraine and attended by Sergey Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister – will settle on the agenda for a summit in August, also in South Africa, of the Brics heads of state to which Russian president Vladimir Putin has been invited.

President Cyril Ramaphosa’s government is wrestling with how it can host the Russian leader in Johannesburg without having to effect an arrest warrant for war crimes that has been issued by the International Criminal Court.

“Our government is currently looking at what the legal options are with respect to this matter and I’ve indicated that it is something the president will be [the] best person to speak about once it has reached a conclusion,” said Naledi Pandor, the foreign minister.

Once viewed as a loose, largely symbolic association of disparate emerging economies, Brics has taken more concrete shape, driven initially by Beijing and, since the start of the Ukraine war in February last year, with added impetus from Moscow.

The bloc accounts for 41 per cent of the world’s population and about a quarter of global gross domestic product. This is still far less than the economic share of the western-dominated G7 countries, but expansion could narrow the gap while also helping Russia to get around western sanctions.

Pretoria, which says it wants to stay neutral over the war but is accused by critics of tilting towards the Kremlin, has long advocated for Brics to act as a counterbalance to a western-dominated international order.

“Our vision of Brics is for our partnership to provide global leadership in a world fractured by competition, geopolitical tension, inequality, and deteriorating global security,” Mr Pandor told the meeting.

“Our discussions today will therefore focus on opportunities … strengthening and transforming global governance systems”.

Meanwhile, outside the hotel where the meeting was held, about a dozen protesters with Ukrainian flags and traditional clothes chanted “Stop Putin! Stop the war!” Some held signs depicting Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, with the words “child murderer” in blood-red letters.

“It is difficult to see that South Africa, which has such a strong stand on children’s rights, is shaking the hand of a person who is part of these systemic war crimes against Ukrainian children,” said Dzvinka Kachur, 41, a member of the Ukrainian association of South Africa.

The Times

– with AAP