Expanded Brics’ key message: the West is not the only show in town

This year’s Brics summit attracted more attention than usual. Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates now look set to become members next year, while a raft of other leaders attended. But with both China and Russia in attendance, the focus was on the grouping as an alternative to the established world order, supported by a narrative advanced in the media.

Yet, at the same time, Western analysts and officials appear reassured by the inherent illogicality of the grouping. Not only are some core members in conflict with each other – like China and India – it also consists of countries of vastly different economic, strategic and military weight.

China, for example, is still an active member of the United Nations and its many institutions, and is eager to cultivate structures that also bring in Western powers, while India participates despite its clear desire to cultivate strong relations with the United States and its antagonism towards China.

But this misses the bigger point of Brics and the other institutions that are characterised as being part of the new alternative order being pushed by Beijing in particular. At present, the point is not so much about creating real threats to the established institutions, but normalising a world order of institutions that is not led by the West.

The G20 is an example where Western power is diluted, but Brics goes further and is a platform where Western power is excluded. It might not tangibly achieve much, but it provides a place for the non-Western world to meet and discuss world affairs without the West. The key message is that the Western order is no longer the only show in town.

The core idea is to preserve the world order that has been in existence since the end of World War II and was strengthened by the collapse of the Soviet Union. The barely hidden agenda is to freeze out authoritarian adversary powers like China and Russia.

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Under the wider rubric of its Global Development Initiative, China is saying that the world does not need to be defined by the rules and order crafted by Western powers.

This narrative is not new. Beijing has long presented itself as a champion of the Global South. Having moved from being an underdeveloped country to the world’s second-largest economy in just a few decades, China now presents itself as a positive role model of the path countries can take which is different from that dictated by the West, and also offers itself as a leader of the “rest” of the world.

Chinese President Xi Jinping (centre) and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa (second left) attend the China-Africa leaders’ roundtable dialogue on the last day of the Brics Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, on August 24. Photo: AP

Western analysis struggles to explain this through the lens of action usually used to define international institutions. The fallback is to compare it to the Western institutions it seems to be competing against.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation is often characterised as an “eastern Nato” and then derided for the general lack of tangible action. Yet, the SCO has ended up doing a lot under the radar.

From being a grouping that brought four Central Asian countries together with China and Russia to define borders and establish relations in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union, it now has a collective land mass and population larger than any other regional organisation.

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It regularly brings together government ministers, businesspeople and the media from its member states. The SCO University, a network of existing universities, encourages student exchanges, while other programmes include gatherings of young business leaders, a film festival and marathon.

It conducts joint counterterrorism exercises, and the China National Institute for SCO International Exchange and Judicial Cooperation in Shanghai provides training and builds links among law enforcement agencies across the organisation.

Chinese troops participate in the closing ceremony of the “Peace Mission 2021” counterterrorism military drill of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation member states, at the Donguz training range in Russia’s Orenburg region, on September 24, 2021. Photo: Xinhua

Although the economic side is somewhat underdeveloped, the SCO has helped craft agreements to facilitate cross-border trade and developed common approaches to digital legislation and commerce among some members.

None of this is overtly game-changing but, cumulatively, it is substantial and highlights a path that could be followed. With member countries in conflict, a practice of not seeing the platform as their only vector of engagement offers appealing flexibility.

But this fluidity should not be mistaken for vacuity. It is normalising a world order that is not led by the West, the key point that China, India and others are eager to advance.

Raffaello Pantucci is a senior associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) in London and a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) in Singapore

South China Morning Post