New members to join BRICS amid East-West power struggle
The BRICS group (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) will be expanded by adding new member states against the background of multidirectional processes in the balancing of power of the East and West, said Head of the Scientific Committee of the Center of Russian Studies at Beijing Normal University, Professor Li Xing.
“Nowadays, a multitude of watershed changes is underway worldwide. Overall, parallel processes of the East getting stronger and the West getting weaker are being observed and vice versa. Thus, a trend toward multipolarity is emerging as well as the specifics of the transitional period,” the expert said.
“The emergence of BRICS precisely reflects these processes. So this union didn’t appear by accident: it has a vitality and it is bound to expand by means of new members.”
The emergence of BRICS indicates the rise of the East as well as a turning point in the distribution of power between the West and Eastern countries.
India will soon become the leading star with China and also possibly Russia all playing an important role. Of course, Brazil and South Africa are also important players on the international stage. Some other regional powers can also play an important role.
Strategic interaction between the member states of this international union has global significance. This is a complex process because history “does not develop in a linear fashion and has many twists and turns” while the events occurring worldwide “often are of unpredictable nature.”
Li Xing pointed to the primary importance of maintaining socio-economic progress. “Even despite the fact that all countries are developing not quite the same way, for any nation during any era the development factor should come first,” he concluded.
As the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Monday, Moscow aspires to establish new interaction mechanisms in various spheres with the countries that have not joined the West’s anti-Russian campaign.
Its statement noted that Russia would expand interaction with its BRICS partners as well as with members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and with “other countries displaying independence in international affairs.”.
