Brazil and India have effectively refuted allegations that recently emerged in mainstream media about them opposing the expansion of the BRICS.
Mere hours after a certain media outlet claimed that Brazil is against expanding BRICS membership, citing some unnamed Brazilian diplomats as saying that such expansion might decrease the existing members’ influence, Brazil’s President Lula da Silva promptly told journalists that his country supports more nations joining BRICS.
“I am of the opinion that as many countries want to enter, if they are in compliance with the rules we are establishing, we will accept the countries’ entrance,” the Brazilian president said told media.
Meanwhile, India’s Foreign Ministry’s spokesman Arindam Bagchi stressed that the claims about his country being against the expansion of BRICS are also false.
“We have seen some baseless speculations… that India has reservations against expansion [of BRICS]. This is simply not true,” he said.
Commenting on this development, London-based foreign affairs analyst, journalist and commentator Adriel Kasonta told Sputnik that these refuted claims appear to be an attempt by the West to sow discord among BRICS members.
“I think that India is perceived by the West as the weakest link within that group, because in particular, India is in an open competition with China when it comes to domination in Asia,” he suggested. “I don’t want to get into the details, but the fact is that many articles and many Western analysts and pundits like, for instance, here in the UK, are trying to portray India as the country that can be swayed in some way on the side of the West.”
Kasonta further speculated that the West may be seeking to “create a situation where a certain decision will not be made” at the coming BRICS summit in Johannesburg later this month.
“So it is not about the schism because the BRICS already made a commitment and a decision to move forward with adding new members not only during this summit but in the coming future,” he added. “But it is more about the Western attempts to try and destroy the grouping which is posing a serious threat or I would say a concern to the Western hegemony in order to maintain this hegemony in the future.”
Noting how Western powers already sought to force South Africa to enforce the ICC ruling against Russian President Vladimir Putin, were he to appear at the BRICS summit, Kasonta argued that there is a de facto “hybrid war” waged by the West against BRICS.
Regarding the Western powers’ likely motives, Kasonta argued that BRICS currently stands as a “serious competitor” to not just US hegemony, but “to Western hegemony and Western imperialism.”
“I think that BRICS is the last step towards gaining full sovereignty of the Global South and countries whose participation was not in mind where the Western countries were forming international organizations like Bretton Woods, institutions like the IMF or World Bank,” he elaborated.
According to Kasonta, the “ultimate goal” of BRICS is “to be the final milestone in the long attempt by Global South leaders like [Ghanian independence leader] Kwame Nkrumah… to break away from neo-colonialism.”
At the same time, Kasonta warned that, in his opinion, the “threat of legitimate disagreements between China and India” poses a serious danger to BRICS, even though he expressed hope that the leaders of member states “will see the bigger picture and they will rise above these petty disputes and this petty attempts from the West to sow discord.”
Source: Sputnik
