Brics moves to strengthen economic ties
PLANS to strengthen economic co-operation between the Brics countries have been under way in China at a meeting of the ministers of foreign affairs.
Minister of International Relations and Co-operation Maite Nkoana-Mashabane has met with her counterparts Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Brazil Foreign Minister Aloysio Nunes, India Minister for External Affairs Dr VK Singh and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
The meeting comes at a time of heightened global political and economic concerns, and the objective of the Brics nations was to deliberate on how to strengthen the grouping in order to respond effectively to these concerns.
Some of the key priorities of the discussions were to deepen trade and investment, and support people-to-people co-operation in the spheres of education, culture and sports.
“Brics is increasingly being called upon to show demonstrable leadership on global issues, notably as we set new regimes for guiding our future global engagements,” Nkoana-Mashabane told her counterparts.
“Our foreign policy envisions exactly the same aspirations for our domestic, regional and global agendas. South Africa believes that a people-centred development agenda based on the recently adopted sustainable development goals should be the basis for addressing the myriad of challenges that confront nations across the globe, including those of peace and security,” she said.
Nkoana-Mashabane used the occasion to push the issue of UN reform.
She argued that the United Nations remained the primary multilateral institution and centre of global governance, which needed to be strengthened and made more representative.
“In its current state, the UN has failed to curb unilateral actions by powerful nations who undermine its founding principles, very often with disastrous consequences,” said Nkoana-Mashabane.
South Africa successfully drove home the point at the Brics meeting that the unilateral actions of certain powers risked reversing the gains previously made by the collective, including the implementation of the Paris Climate Change Agreement.
Given the droughts experienced in Southern Africa last year, it was important for South Africa to highlight the need for concrete solutions to the adverse effects of climate change.
The foreign ministers’ meeting was considered so useful that South Africa has advocated it becomes a permanent feature on the Brics calendar of meetings, and it will convene such a meeting when South Africa hosts Brics next year. South Africa will take over the chairpersonship of Brics in January.
The Brics Ministers of Foreign Affairs/International Relations will meet again on the margins of UNGA 72 in New York in September.
Brics is increasingly being called upon to show leadership