25-27 will be the fifth BRICS summit in South African Durban in March - organizations that include China, India and Brazil in addition to South Africa and Russia. According to preliminary data, the summit will be mainly devoted to the problems of developing cooperation within the framework of the unification, issues of enhancing security and solving economic problems. For the first time, Xi Jinping will represent China at the summit as the head of state. At least, that's exactly what the representatives of the Foreign Ministry of China declared. That is why the Durban summit could become a kind of show of the new head of the PRC, who inside China has already noted the statements that the PLA (Chinese army) must increase its combat capability in order to be ready for victory in any war. These statements by the new Chinese leader have already caused a lot of noise from the "partners" in the United States, where it was immediately announced that Xi Jinping voiced veiled threats to world democracy. It is obvious that the words and deeds of the representatives of the Chinese delegation and in Durban will be the focus of attention, including from the main world observers of geopolitical changes - the United States of America.
In the meantime, the world community (sorry for this hackneyed term) has begun to discuss the points of the BRICS development program with which a delegation from Russia is going to come to the Republic of South Africa to listen to the ideas of the Chinese leader at the BRICS summit in Durban.
In the preliminary document prepared by the Russian side before the trip to Durban, the following paragraphs-proposals are indicated. Russia denotes the question of the loss of its economic advantage by the Euro-Atlantic community and declares that the global initiative is moving to territories that were considered yesterday as the global periphery. The authors of the Russian concept call on the BRICS countries to begin active construction of the main pillars of the world order, without neglecting contacts with the same West.
Unfortunately (or fortunately), it is necessary not to neglect for the simple reason that globalization has reached a significant scale.
In addition, Russia is going to invite other delegations in Durban to begin addressing issues related to the creation of a permanent BRICS secretariat, as well as to create a Development Bank with a $ X billion (in dollar equivalent) share capital, whose headquarters can be opened in the business center of Moscow . These are not all the proposals with which Russia is going to enter the global BRICS arena. Russian authors of the program propose to create a bank that will work on the basis of payments in national currencies with the total rejection of the US dollar and Euro. To solve crisis problems, it is proposed to launch the work of the so-called anti-crisis fund with a total capital of about 50 billions all in the same dollar equivalent.
In addition to a number of economic proposals, Russia is going to express a wish to expand BRICS at the expense of one of the powerful Islamic economies. Among the possible applicants are such states as Turkey and Indonesia.
Russia denotes in its document the presence of problem points between the BRICS countries. For example, it is pointed out the outstanding border conflict between India and China, which so far does not allow to begin full-fledged economic integration between these countries.
So far, the trade turnover between China and India amounts to about $ 60 billion, which, given the current potential of these states, cannot be called an impressive figure. For example, following the results of 2012, the trade turnover between Russia and China came very close to the 90 mark of billions of dollars. At the same time, Russian economists say that the mutual benefit from trade between the BRICS countries would have increased significantly if financial contacts were made exclusively through national currencies without the participation of foreign currencies for the BRICS countries.
Such priorities, set by Russia, provoked a strong reaction in the so-called democratic liberal environment. Critics of the program, as always, saw something indicating the desire of Russia to grow to a global player, to which so far no one wants to pay attention. For example, a member of the Moscow Carnegie Center, Mr. Petrov, argues that the Russian proposals will be absolutely uninteresting to other BRICS countries, and the role of the Russian Federation itself in this organization, it turns out, is to sit on an attached chair ... Apparently, Russia's 90 billionths trade with China alone BRICS is the “side chair” that Nikolai Petrov is talking about ...
If we take into account, under whose tune all branches of the Carnegie Center are dancing, then we can seriously say that Russia's proposals to someone (who knows) are crossing the road. After all, if we assume that 5 of the BRICS countries completely abandon the use of dollar and euro in mutual settlements, and they also create a bank that will support national currencies and trade operations based on them, then the damage to the American economy alone will be truly enormous. Against the background of the fact that China in February for the first time in stories overtook the United States in terms of world trade, reaching trillions in 3,87 trillions of dollars, Washington has all these fractions within the framework of the BRICS as a bone in the throat. Unless the United States themselves suddenly want to join the BRICS ... But will they take it? ..
Of course, in the current state of the BRICS one cannot be called an organization in which integration achieves enchanting results. That is why the Russian proposals to start closer cooperation look quite timely. There are states in BRICS whose economy looks more powerful and impressive, but there are those whose economic growth results leave much to be desired. To understand this process, it is worthwhile to cite statistics on the level of growth of the economies of the BRICS countries in the 2012 year.
Brazil's GDP growth: 0,9% per year (in 2010, it was almost 7,5%).
South Africa GDP growth: about 2,2% per year.
Russia's GDP growth: 3,5% per year.
India's GDP growth: 6% per year.
China's GDP growth: 7,8% per year.
It is clear that the economic stratification in terms of economic growth in the BRICS takes place, but to say that the role of Russia in this organization is the orphan position in the added chair, only a person who is either completely incompetent in economic matters or forces trying to divert public attention from the reasonable proposals of Russia. If the economy, for example, France, barely surpassed the half-percentage threshold of economic growth at the end of last year, then no one says that France is a beggar with an EU-status that wants to draw attention to itself with all its strength, remaining uninteresting to anyone in the EU ...
In general, the aspirations about the role of Russia in the BRICS and the words about the unwillingness of the BRICS countries to take Russia seriously, expressed by “experts” at various levels, can be called a baseless fantasy.
Of course, the opening of the Development Bank in Moscow for Russia is not an end in itself. It can be opened even in Beijing, at least in New Delhi. What is important is the fact of the opening of this financial institution, which will allow a transition to more active economic integration between the BRICS countries. And this is a direct blow to the interests of the United States.
At the same time, if BRICS grows into such a powerful economy as Turkey, it will be a blow to the interests of the European Union, which is trying to keep Turkey at the right distance with endless promises to join the “just about” mode issued by Ankara. “That's it” continues indecently for a long time, giving Erdogan a reason to choose other areas of integration. And in general, the European way of economic integration for Ankara today can be called lost its relevance, but the economic integration with the BRICS countries is worthwhile. Attracting Turkey or Indonesia to BRICS will provide extensive markets in Muslim countries, whose development is proceeding at a very fast pace.
It turns out that the Russian proposals prepared for the Durban summit seem ridiculous except to those gentlemen who stubbornly want to hold on to the American and European economies who have shown themselves during the global financial crisis 2008-2010 "in all its glory" and continue to show this way and to this day. For these gentlemen, any words about integration bypassing the interests of Washington and Brussels - this is salt to the wound, and therefore the rhetoric about the ridiculousness of the Russian (like Chinese, Indian, Brazilian and South African) ideas of the development of BRICS will only intensify. However, everyone has already got used to it. The main thing is for the BRICS countries to separate the wheat from the chaff and work in the direction that it is they, and not the EU, the United States and other "well-wishers" who consider it beneficial.