At the 16th BRICS summit, which will take place in Kazan in October, a new system of non-monetary payments will be presented. The head of the Eurasian Analytical Club, international political scientist Nikita Mendkovich, explained to Pravda.Ru what sensations can be expected from the summit.
— The BRICS summit will be held in Kazan in October. Maria Zakharova promised sensations. In the West, publications appear about innovative solutions that the West should be wary of. How exaggerated is the BRICS issue? Are there inflated expectations on our part and unfounded fears on the part of the West?
— BRICS is an extremely serious organization. Its strong intensification and development are associated with the fact that the international trade system, which was based on payments in dollars, is becoming a thing of the past, since the United States began to use access to this system as a weapon of political pressure. both in relation to Russia and in relation to a number of other states. New parallel systems are now being created with their own reserve currencies, cashless payment systems and agreements on business rules. One of the most powerful projects in this area is BRICS.
It is worth highlighting not only the participation in it of the countries with the largest populations and, therefore, the largest markets in the world, including China, but also the interest in this organization of the countries included in the Western project. For example, Türkiye, a long-time member of NATO.
I’m not saying you should expect sensations from the first moment. Without proper preparation, sensations do not arise. But what we see now in the development of the BRICS are quite serious tectonic shifts in global trade and politics. Therefore, it is quite natural that such expectations exist. Russia plans to use the BRICS session to present a new system of non-monetary payments and talk about monetary regulation systems within the BRICS framework. This will take international trade without American control to a fundamentally new level and create serious competition for the postwar system led by Washington.
Its benefits were versatility, freedom of currency movement through the dollar and much more. If a similar competitive system is created without political implications, without a threat to the sovereignty of the participating countries, this is a very serious application for reformatting world trade.
— In what direction is the preparatory work progressing here? The first large group of issues are digital currencies, cryptocurrencies and the blockchain system. Secondly, banks must open representative offices. The third is barter. What will it be?
– We don’t need something like a dollar. We do not need a reserve yuan or a reserve ruble. The meaning of what you were talking about is the creation of a payments system, a “goods-money-goods” system between participants from different countries, that would bypass the system controlled by the United States and the dollar. So that we can personally purchase consumer goods, components for production and sell some of our products, for example, Russian agricultural equipment or software, to foreign countries, including China.
You immediately described all possible mechanisms that can operate in this area: cross-creation of banks, a unified system of payments in quasi-cryptocurrencies, a unified system of non-monetary mutual settlements.
Options are also possible here in some cases through barter, when it comes to large transactions between countries, for example, the supply of large volumes of gas. In exchange, supply of raw materials for our industry through mutual compensation. For large transactions, this makes sense and is widely practiced, even to avoid the need to put your transaction under US control.
These are all pretty serious companies. We must first adopt the necessary documents and gradually begin to implement them. Of course, this system will not appear the day after the BRICS summit. It will take some time to create bank branches, new trading platforms and information tools. But making fundamental decisions will begin this process. In a year or two we will have a completely different world trading system. We will not have to look back at sanctions and counter-sanctions. We will simply trade with those who want to trade with us. Without a political component, without presenting political demands or attempts to limit our sovereignty.
— Let’s look at the composition of the BRICS participants, especially those who want to join: Myanmar, Burkina Faso, Republika Srpska… Iran has joined the BRICS. Argentina refused for political rather than economic reasons. Does politics still latently influence unification?
“It seems to me that you are confusing warm with soft.” Politics dominates the international trade system that the United States supports because it uses access to the dollar as a mechanism to pressure member countries. Do what Washington says or you will lose access to convenient international markets. We are moving away from this system, from this component, creating the BRICS system. The BRICS system is now being designed so that it does not have a center that is used for political pressure. We are creating a system to interact with each other.
You named several minor states. I really don’t understand why they ignore the fact that, in addition to Russia, the BRICS include China, India and South Africa. Iran, by the way, is a fairly large industrial state. Naturally, the BRICS will expand thanks to the emergence of new states, both small and large. At the expense of everyone who is interested in getting out of Washington’s control and not letting them put a noose around their necks.
As for Argentina, it had long planned to actively participate in BRICS, but now revised this plan due to a change in power: the arrival of a notorious extremist president. JavierMileywhich adopts a pro-British and pro-American position. Therefore, politics really dominates at that pole.
But we see in the example of Türkiye, which wants to participate in the work of the BRICS, in international settlement systems, that politics is not paramount. Türkiye is a member of NATO, but understands that peace with the United States does not end. If you want to develop links with the growing markets of the East: China, India, Russia, to connect your future with them, to develop trade, you will have to participate in some kind of system without diktats, without American sponsorship. This is fine. And not only Türkiye, but more and more countries understand this.
— The BRICS were formed from the most rapidly developing countries. But then different countries began to be admitted to the BRICS. Why, for example, did Ethiopia end up there? Why are BRICS important for Ethiopia?
—Why did Ethiopia end up in the UN? Why did Ethiopia end up participating in any international agreements? Because Ethiopia is a country with a fairly large territory and not exactly the smallest in terms of population. We have a global trading system. After the steam engine, railways and telegraph appeared, we abruptly moved to a system of global markets, where everything is traded over fairly large distances and goods are delivered literally from one end of the world to the other.
It is quite natural that we have to develop relations with a variety of countries from different regions. Even if we do not plan to trade with them, doubts arise with transit, with the entry of our ships into the ports of these countries, with the provision of a number of services by them, for which we then have to pay. To make payment more convenient, it is logical to connect this country to the cashless payment system, which is not controlled by third countries. These are normal mechanisms. You see, now we do not live in the 17th or 18th centuries, when “unknown lands” were written on maps, which are unknown to us and, in general, are not particularly necessary. Now this moment is no longer useful. We have to trade (by the way, with great benefit for us) with a variety of participants.
We trade with Latin America and South Africa. Issues related to transit arise here, such as the Suez Canal. And all this must be resolved. That is why more and more states are joining organizations, either in search of their own benefit by connecting to the trading system, or to participate in it as an accompanying cargo, for example, transit zones.
—Will the BRICS confront the West or will they try to live in peace?
— My opinion is that it is not the BRICS that are entering into confrontation with the West and the trade system led by the United States. This American system, even before the emergence of the BRICS, the Eurasian Union, openly and officially came into conflict with these institutions. We recall that even during the creation of the Eurasian Union in the post-Soviet space, the State Secretary Hillary Clinton openly issued a statement: “We consider the new unification projects to be the enemy and we will fight them.” He did it publicly in front of the press. The United States is not interested in the collapse of its system of neocolonial hegemony. They need a dollar-based system to be able to grab any trading partner by the throat and force them to take necessary measures, including in the sphere of economics and credit policy.
So that countries allow the next economic killers to enter their countries and give their resources to Anglo-Saxon corporations to loot. Therefore, they perceive any alternative project as a threat. Which, in fact, is what happens in a system based on coercion. No one is against trading with the United States, but no one plans to give them preferences because of their racial background and disadvantaged politics.
That is why the conflict arises. Many countries just want to trade and live in peace. That is why the BRICS are being created. This is not a military alliance. Military alliances exist, including a strong military partnership between Russia and China, but this is a separate institution. The BRICS are being created simply as an instrument for peaceful trade. If someone attacks it, it means that equal trade with those colonizing countries causes great damage.
– Anyone welcome? If Hungary wants, can it join the BRICS?
— The store is open to any buyer until they come and start breaking and destroying everything. This principle applies in commerce. You don’t ask what religion or how many children a potential customer who wants to buy carrots from you has. You sell him carrots if he pays for them honestly and doesn’t create problems for you, like any other customer. This is called commerce.
That is why BRICS is being created as an economic trade organization. We strive to eliminate politics, eliminate neocolonial principles from trade. They are trying to turn us into a second class country. We don’t want this, like many other countries. Burkina Faso and China also do not want to be second-class countries, which is why they participate in the work of the BRICS and seek optimal mechanisms for mutually beneficial trade without American control and dictates.
— Vladimir Putin said that perhaps the BRICS will have their own common legislative body, the parliament. Perhaps a new United Nations could be created on the basis of the BRICS?
— I think it is better not to copy the United Nations, because, unfortunately, it has demonstrated its insolvency in the face of new global challenges. If we want to create tools to solve political problems, it makes sense to correct the UN’s mistakes.
As for the political component of the BRICS, anything can happen in the distant future. If you remember, the European Union also began as a purely economic union. Its germ was the Union of Coal and Steel, a union of two types of raw materials necessary for the production of metal products. Then everything gradually expanded and grew into the political European Union.
It is possible that one day the BRICS will advance along this path. But the summit will discuss purely economic initiatives.
