Russia, South Africa Step up Efforts on BRICS 2018 Summit

By Kester Kenn Klomegah

Russia and South Africa have recently stepped up efforts towards finalizing “the most significant issues” relating to the 10th edition of BRICS Summit scheduled to take place from 25-27 July in Johannesburg, South Africa.

According to official documents, BRICS is an informal association of five major emerging national economies: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The group, founded in June 2006 at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), first known as BRIC prior to inclusion of South Africa in 2009. It has yearly rotating chairmanship among its five members.

After Jacob Zuma’s resignation in February, Russian President Vladimir Putin has maintained very close working contact and cooperation with the new South African leader Cyril Ramaphosa.

The Kremlin speaks about a very high strategic level of partnership while praising the joint activities of the two countries in the area of foreign politics, in particular within the United Nations, BRICS (an association of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa).

In mid-May, Foreign Affairs Minister Sergey Lavrov meeting with South African Deputy President David Mabuza expressed high optimism when he said: “Our presidents talked not so long ago, on March 23. They agreed to continue a course toward the comprehensive development of our relations in all areas. And, of course, we agreed to have a special meeting during the BRICS summit to take place in Johannesburg at the end of July.”

In his turn, Mabuza thanked Lavrov and handed him a special message from the South African president addressed to Russian President Vladimir Putin which experts interpreted as part of the preparations towards the next BRICS summit. As protocol demands, Mabuza did not disclose its contents.

Instead, Mabuza laid emphasis on his country’s interest in enhancing foreign policy coordination with Russia and praised its consistent line of principle on supporting the efforts of the African community to find consensus-based solutions to the continent’s political and socio-economic issues.

On May 17, as a follow-up to series of consultations on the summit, Deputy Foreign Minister and Russia’s BRICS, Sherpa Sergey Ryabkov, also met with Ambassador of South Africa to the Russian Federation, Nomasonto Maria Sibanda-Thusi. During that meeting, Ryabkov reaffirmed Russia’s readiness to provide all the necessary support to its South African friends in holding a successful BRICS summit.

The officials had a mutually engaging discussion on a number of issues on the broad agenda of multifaceted cooperation within BRICS. Both sides expressed confidence that during South Africa’s BRICS presidency the group will make great strides in strengthening strategic partnership in all three key areas of the organisation’s focus: peace and security, economy and finance, and cultural and humanitarian ties.

Brics-Africa Dialogue

Russia is very instrumental in deepening constructive dialogue between BRICS and African countries, including through the “BRICS Plus” mechanism. This year, the chairmanship plans to invite Africans to the 10th anniversary BRICS summit in Johannesburg.

Early March, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov reiterated in an interview with the pan-African monthly Hommes d’Afrique magazine in the run-up to his tour of African countries: “We support deepening the BRICS-Africa dialogue, which was launched in Durban in 2013 during the meeting between the association’s member-countries, the African Union leadership and the leaders of eight leading regional integration associations.”

“We believe that the ‘BRICS Plus’ concept approved last year lays the foundation for making the practice of inviting chairpersons of the African Union and, possibly, other African regional associations to the BRICS summits systemic,” he explained.

As South Africa has taken over BRICS chairmanship, Lavrov is particularly pleased to note that “our South African friends intend to make African issues part of the BRICS agenda, discuss the key problems and challenges facing the continent,” he said. “For our part, we welcome this approach.”

NDB Financed Projects

The BRICS New Development Bank (NDB) and Business Council are two significant features, among others, of BRICS group. The NDB finances projects while the main tasks of the Business Council is to identify problems and difficulties, which hinder growth of economic, trade, business and investment cooperation between BRICS countries.

The bank’s first non-sovereign project was a $200 million loan to Brazil’s Petrobras for an environmental protection scheme and the second a $200 million loan to South Africa’s Transnet to reconstruct a port in Durban. The NDB has also extended funds for projects in Karelia, Russia. The NDB is currently considering to extend another substantial loan for two projects in Russia – the Amur gas processing plant (GCP) and the petrochemical plant in Tobolsk – by the year-end, according to the Russian Finance Ministry.

As expected, African leaders and Experts believe that the NDB pays particular attention to the viable projects on African continent. “The New Development Bank is just starting its operation but it will soon work in full swing,” Lavrov explained. “Projects discussed at the initial stage pertain only to the territory of five BRICS countries. Potential projects outside BRICS is the next stage. However, special attention will be clearly paid to the African continent because an office of the BRICS New Development Bank will be situated in South Africa.”

The agreement on establishing the BRICS New Development Bank concluded on July 15, 2014 in Brazil’s Fortaleza. The bank’s starting capital was set at $100 bn. The Shanghai-headquartered bank has been set up to finance infrastructure projects and sustainable development projects in BRICS member countries and in other developing countries.

Future Steps

On June 4, the BRICS Council of Foreign Ministers held a meeting in Pretoria, South Africa. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs report that meeting was largely aimed at outlining significant tasks for future and that include a wide range of issues pertaining to the maintenance of international peace and stability, the global economy, interaction between the BRICS countries and the coordination of their positions in the complicated conditions of global political turbulence.

There were in-depth talks on the situation in the world’s trouble spots and common goals in the face of new challenges and threats, primarily efforts against international terrorism and for international information security.

One of Russia’s priorities is to promote strategic partnership among the BRICS countries. Over the past years, this group of five large rising economies has developed from an interest club into a comprehensive mechanism of multifaceted strategic partnership. The group has developed a network of industry-specific cooperation, contacts and cooperation between their business and research communities and civil societies.

The five BRICS countries are working towards indivisible security, stronger international stability in all dimensions, collective efforts to settle crises by political and diplomatic means, and multilateralism. They reject military interventions, unilateral economic enforcement measures, protectionism and unfair competition. The BRICS countries are working together to protect the system of multilateral trade based on the central role of the WTO as the only universal platform for formulating the rules of global trade.

The BRICS countries are working to find new sources of economic growth. The group played a major role in promoting the reform of the IMF. It has created the New Development Bank and the Contingent Reserve Arrangement to help modernise the architecture of global governance and financial security.

The five BRICS countries support the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.

The BRICS countries focused on consolidating and diversifying the mechanisms of multifaceted cooperation and finding new spheres of cooperation. BRICS is open to the world and consistently expanding its ties with concerned countries and integration associations.

The BRICS member countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) collectively represent about 26% of the world’s geographic area and are home to 2.88 billion people, about 42% of the world’s population.

Kester Kenn Klomegah filed in this report from Moscow.