[Music] bricks continues to grow and is easily one of the most influential organizations on Earth today brics was originally founded as just brick back in 2009 consisting of Brazil Russia India and China and then a year later in 2010 South Africa was added this is a group of developing countries who have United in their common goal to transform the Global Financial system to provide more opportunities for economic development and in 2023 brics held a historic Summit in South Africa and it officially expanded adding Iran Egypt Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates as official members so
there are now nine members of bricks which is now sometimes referred to as bricks plus and at another historic brick Summit in the Russian city of Kazan in October 2024 bricks once again grew the Russian media reported that 13 new countries were invited to become bricks Partners now these nations are not full members of bricks but they're on the pathway to eventually becoming full members and the Indian media reported that the 13 new bricks partner countries are Algeria bellarus Bolivia Cuba Indonesia Kazakhstan Malaysia Nigeria Thailand tur Uganda usbekistan and Vietnam now this list of countries
was not officially announced at The Brick Summit but it was also confirmed by Brazilian diplomats in an article in the Brazilian media so this is another historic development that shows how bricks continues to grow in influence even before the expansion the original five members of bricks made up onethird of the entire global economy when you measure GDP at purchasing power parity adjusting for differences in exchange rates of currencies and then when you look at their population they're even more influential bricks together has more than 40% of the entire world's population and when you add in
the new Full members of bricks including major oil producers like Iran and the United Arab Emirates together they represent 30% of the entire world's oil production and more than 20% of all of the goods exports on Earth and it's very instructive if you compare bricks to the G7 that is the group of seven Imperial Nations that colonize most of the world that consists of North America Europe and Japan if you look at their share of global GDP the g7's share is now under 30% whereas brick share of global GDP is at 1/3 33% and continues
to grow over time and this is before the expansion of bricks this is just looking at the original five members and the differences are even more pronounced when you compare the population of the G7 which together is less than 10% of the entire world and is shrinking over time again compare that to Bricks which has more than 40% of the entire world's population now the 2024 brick Summit in Kazan Russia was particularly important because it was the first summit that featured the four new members Iran Egypt Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates now some people
are a bit confused as to which countries exactly are members of bricks because at the 2023 Summit in South Africa Saudi Arabia and Argentina were also invited to join at that time Argentina had a center-left government and the president Alberto Fernandez accepted the offer however before January 1st of 2024 when Argentina would officially become a bricks member in December of 2023 a new right-wing very pro- us leader came to power named Javier M and he is extremely anti-china and anti-russia and Javier M told Washington that he would would not Ally with bricks and he withdrew
Argentina from bricks however another country was invited to join officially and that was Saudi Arabia and initially Saudi Arabia said that it was interested in joining however it has not officially confirmed and has not denied that it will become a member and Saudi Arabia's deao leader Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman did not attend the brick Summit in Russia in 2024 instead Saudi Arabia only sent its foreign minister so Riyad has been very ambiguous it's clear that Saudi Arabia is trying not to upset the United States it's historic longtime Ally so Saudi Arabia is not a
member of bricks however the United Arab Emirates is a full member and the UAE sent its president Muhammad bin Zed to Russia to participate in the conference he was joined of course by Russia's President Vladimir Putin China's president XI Jin ping India's prime minister Narendra Modi and South Africa's president SRA maposa and they were also joined by the leaders of Egypt president Abdul fat aisi the prime minister of Ethiopia ABI Ahmed and the president of Iran masud pesan now there were more than 30 countries that participated in this Summit it was very important every single
year bricks has more countries around the world expressing interest and the meeting in Russia was particularly important because it also featured the president of Tura formerly known as turkey reip Ty up erdogan and tur is actually a member of NATO so this is an example of how erdogan is trying to play the West against the East and trying to be involved in all of these different organizations and along with erdogan there were also representatives of other countries heads of state including the leaders of Lao Armenia aeran and Venezuela's president Nicolas Muro and Bolivia's president Luis
AR and they were also joined by the Secretary General of the United Nations Antonio gues so what exactly happened at the summit I'm going to talk about some of the most important developments but first I should mention one of the most significant things that happened that actually happened before the summit officially began and that is that China and India held diplomatic talks to resolve a border dispute this is very important this is historic and in fact China's president Xi Jinping and prime minister of India Narendra Modi had a one-on-one meeting at The Brick Summit to
try to reduce tensions this is very important because the United States and the Western Powers have been trying to divide bricks and have been trying to in particular cause more tension between China and India India is a country kind of like turkia that has been playing both sides of both east and west and India is also the member of the so-called quad which stands for quadrilateral security dialogue alongside the United States Japan and Australia and although they don't say it openly it's clear that the quad is an anti-china organization and in recent years India has
been growing closer to the United States both the former president Donald Trump and the current US President Joe Biden have been trying to recruit India for their new Cold War on China tensions between China and India have been quite difficult in recent years and in fact in 2020 there was a low-level armed conflict over a border dispute and some soldiers even died as some Indian and Chinese soldiers were fighting each other however in 20124 relations between China and India got a little better in May for the first time in 18 months China sent its ambassador
to India which was a sign of diplomatic warming up and then before the brick Summit China and India signed this historic agreement which reduces tensions and tries to resolve this border dispute what's noteworthy is how Russia played a diplomatic role in helping to negotiate peace between China and India Russia has very good relations with both China and with India and Moscow has made this a prise priority trying to encourage more stability inside bricks whereas the United States and the Western Powers have been trying to antagonize China and Russia and India and turn them all against
each other another reason that India has had for moving a little bit back toward the East and not being as friendly with the West is that the US and Canada have been pressuring India over allegations that India Indian Intelligence Officers have killed Indian dissidents living in North America this has led to a slight cooling of tensions between India and the West although they still are very good relations and this is one of the reasons why India has been trying to improve its diplomacy with China however if you read the Western media especially us newspapers like
the Washington Post and the New York Times you can see that they are trying to encourage more hostility and instability inside bricks they're trying to turn India and China against each other because the United States sees bricks as a threat to its hegemonic domination of the world in fact Russian President Putin referenced this at the Kazan Summit in 2024 he noted that brics is giving birth to a more multi-polar World however the Western hegemonic powers are opposing this he noted that the transition is being slowed down quote by forces accustomed to thinking and acting in
the logic of dominating everything and everyone quote he's obviously referring to the United States and the unipolar order in the 90s and 2000s in which Washington tried to impose its will on all countries on Earth so us corporations could benefit from exploiting workers around the world and extracting the natural resources of countries around the world and Bricks is saying very clearly in a unified voice that unipolar us Domin World Order is dead and buried we are firmly in a multi-polar world this message was also made loud and clear in the speech that China's president Xi
Jinping delivered at The Brick Summit in Kazan president XI said quote we must work together to build bricks into a primary channel for strengthening solidarity and cooperation among Global South Nations and a Vanguard for advancing Global governance reform end quote and he called for peace in Gaza and Lebanon he said that they must promote an immediate ceasefire and an end to Israel's killing and he called for a just and Lasting resolution for the Palestinian people the creation of a Palestinian State and president she emphasized that the global South is rising and Bricks can be the
voice of the global South so he called for further expanding bricks and adding new members and in part particular a point that was emphasized in this Summit which I'm going to talk about in Greater detail is as president she put it the reform of the International Financial architecture and he said bricks countries must play a leading role in reforming the international monetary and financial system using institutions like the brics bank the new development bank now I previously published a very long video and an article explaining brics's plan to transform the global monetary and financial system
this is based on a historic report that was published by Russia's Central Bank and finance ministry and in this report they call for the creation of a bricks crossborder payment initiative in which countries can use National currencies and not the US dollar they also called for creating an alternative to the Swift interbank messaging system and creating what the call a bricks clear platform so they can have new forms of investment including Financial Assets denominated in National currencies not in US dollars they also called for experimenting with new technologies like the distributed Ledger technology DLT such
as blockchain and the use of Central Bank digital currencies cbdcs to settle trade imbalances and Putin said pretty clearly at the summit that their goal is to create an alter alternative to the Breton Woods institutions this is a reference to the US dollar dominated Financial system that was created at the Bretton Woods conference in 1944 that made the US dollar the global Reserve currency and also established the international monetary fund the IMF and the World Bank the United States is the only country on Earth that has veto power in both the IMF and the World
Bank and for the history of these institutions the president of the World Bank has always been an American and the managing director of the IMF has always been a European so these are institutions that are dominated by the west and brics is saying we need an alternative and it's not just Russia calling for transforming the global monetary and financial system at the Kazan Summit in October Iran's new president masud pesan also called for reducing the bricks country's dependence on the western controlled Financial system he said quote we should not continue depending on Western Payment Systems
this is a big threat end quote he called for creating New Alternatives and then pesan said quote Iran will do everything for the brics group to successfully promote the task of reforming the structure of global economic management and creating alternative possibilities for Global South countries so in addition to calling for for creating new platforms for crossborder payment using non US dollar currencies the currencies of the bricks members and in addition to calling for a new bricks clear platform for financial instruments and investment in other currencies and focusing on developing countries in the global South that's
all very important another very significant development was Russia's proposal for the creation of a bricks Grain Exchange which can be expanded into a larger Commodities exchange at the Kazan Summit President Putin noted that bricks countries are among the world's largest producers of grains and oils and Russia is the world's biggest wheat exporter and Putin said that the bricks Grain Exchange quote will contribute to the formation of fair and predictable price indicators for products and raw materials considering its special role in ensuring food security the implementation of this initiative will help protect National markets from negative
external interference speculation and attempts to create an artificial food shortage end quote so what's interesting is Russia is pointing out a few things here one this is about food security for developing countries which often are relying food imports and if price prices for food imports change a lot it can lead to crises and cause hunger in poor countries so Russia is saying saying that we should create this exchange as a way of weakening the influence of financial speculators trying to profit from Big fluctuations in food prices and Russia has said that this Grain Exchange is
just the beginning and will likely be expanded to include other Commodities exchanges especially for gold and other metals and oil and gas and these can also be used to settle trade imbalances if countries decide that they don't want to settle trade imbalances with a currency they don't want for instance extra Russian rubles or extra Indian rupees because they don't have anything they can buy anything additional that they can buy with those so they can settle trade imbalances using Commodities like gold or even grain or oil or gas now I also want to look at some
of the statements made by a new bricks partner state which is Bolivia in Latin America Bolivia's president Luis AR attended the summit and he gave a very powerful speech condemning colonialism and imperialism calling for Global South Unity to create a new Financial architecture and when President odys announced that Bolivia is now a partner state of bricks he praised the organization and said that quote every day it advances the consolidation of a new multi-polar world end quote and he called for development economic growth industrialization and and redistribution of wealth this is very important he's saying that
bricks is a tool for the global South to help to redistribute wealth away from the rich colonialist countries concentrated in the global North toward the global South countries that were colonized by the west and are demanding more equity and more economic opportunities in development and I want to translate a few quotes from the very powerful speech that President osay gave at the brick Summit he said bricks can help to transform the global economy for common development and mutual benefit he said Bolivia is a country that is rich in natural resources it has the world's largest
reserves of lithium and he said Bolivia is in the process of industrialization and Bricks can provide Mutual benefit to help these countries in the global South to develop and he said this meeting in Kazan Russia is part of a new moment in history in which the historically subordinated peoples and Nations can Ally together behind the shield of bricks and multipolarity it's a very powerful comment he's saying that bricks and multiparity can help protect the formerly colonized countries of the global South and he said together we can have we can Implement our own processes of development
with sovereignty in our national territories without any interference and then he said we can take back our institutional places that the West has denied us has prevented us from using so he's saying that the West continues to oppress and subordinate the global South and the most powerful part of this speech is he said that we must transform this world quote dominated by Western un polarity and the tyranny of the dollar end quote it's a very powerful speech so here Bolivia's president is saying what does he see in bricks he sees a platform for Global South
Unity to challenge Western unipolarity and the tyranny of the dollar now in the final section of this analysis today I want to highlight some of the main points of the Kazan declaration that was signed by all of the bricks members after The Summit in Russia in October the statement is quite long it's 33 pages but I have a few highlights here the brics countries called for quote the promotion of Peace a more representative fairer International order a reinvigorated and reformed multilateral system sustainable development and inclusive growth they welcomed the considerable interest of countries of the
global South in joining bricks and announced the creation of of the bricks partner countries of which there are now 13 and the statement called for a more Equitable just Democratic and balanced multi-polar World Order and in this order they said that the central role still must be the United Nations this is important because they're contrasting this to the West's idea of the so-called rules-based International order in which the West makes the rules and orders everyone around bricks is saying no there is no so-called rules-based order there is only the United Nations centered order based on
international law however they emphasize that there is an urgent need to reform the United Nations which is still too dominated by the Western Powers they said that there must be Equitable and inclusive geographical representation in the United Nations leadership and in other International organizations they're acknowledging that the global South needs more representation as part of this they openly call for comprehensive reform of the United Nations including the security Council and in the UN there are only five countries with veto power these are the permanent members which consist of yes brics members China and Russia however
the US Britain and France also have permanent member status and thus veto power despite the fact that France in the UK each only have fewer than 70 million people and yet massive countries like India which has 1.4 billion people does not have a permanent seat in the security Council this is why it's so important to reform the security Council in the same vein the brics Kazan declaration calls for reforming the Breton Woods institutions like the IMF and the World Bank which are entirely dominated by the Western Powers they called for increasing representation of emerging markets
and developing countries in leadership positions considering that these countries now represent more and more of the global economy and in that vein they likewise call for ending illegal unilateral sanctions which they emphasize that the West's sanctions are against international law the Kazan declaration has an entire section calling for transforming the global monetary and financial system it says that there there is an urgent need for reform citing high debt levels in some developing countries and the inherent problems with the International Financial architecture especially when for instance interest rates were raised in 2022 and 2023 in the
US and Europe which caused the currencies of many poor countries to fall in value against the dollar and the Euro which means that it makes makes it more difficult to pay for imports Imports of things like food and energy become much more expensive and it also means that poor countries that have debt denominated in dollars or Euros as their currencies fall against the dollar and the Euro it makes it even more prohibitively difficult to pay off that debt so the brick statement emphasizes the need for transforming this financial system it notes that the new development
Bank can play a key role in helping to provide Alternatives and they called for more and more local currency financing in the new development bank and strengthening Innovation with new technologies and they called for the creation of a new investment platform which is the brics clear platform to boost the investment flow into the countries of brics and into Global South countries with new mechanisms for investment and they called for expanding the new development bank and adding new members the Kazan declaration calls for new crossborder payment instruments using local currencies between bricks members and other countries
not the US dollar they call for strengthening correspondent banking networks within brics creating the brics crossborder payments initiative and a and strengthening the brics payment task force which already exists they call for connecting the financial markets infrastructure of brics countries using the brics clear platform and and creating a brics insurance company and they call for reforming the brics IMF alternative which is called the contingent Reserve agreement the CRA and for using alternative currencies within the CRA not just the US dollar so it truly is an alternative to the US dominated IMF and finally the Kazan
declaration referenced some of the geopolitical crises and Wars happening the brics Declaration reiterates grave concern over the humanitarian crisis and the occupied Palestinian territory in particular the unprecedented escalation of violence in Gaza and the West Bank as a result of the Israeli military offensive which led to mass killing and injury of civilians forc displacement and widespread destruction of Civilian infrastructure they denounced the Israeli attacks against humanitarian operations facilities personnel and distribution points they call for Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and they acknowledge the case in the international court of justice that South Africa has
introduced against Israel and how it demanded that Israel stop killing Palestinians and that it stop attacking Rafa in Gaza and the statement reaffirms support for the state of palestine's full membership in the United Nations and a two-state solution the establishment of a sovereign independ dependent and viable state of Palestine with the internationally recognized borders of 1967 of course Israel has always opposed this and the US has opposed it protecting Israel but it's important that the bricks countries Together made it very clear in writing that this is what they support they also called for peace and
a ceasefire in Lebanon and they condemn the loss of Civilian lives and the immense damage to civilian infrastructure resulting from attacks by Israel in residential areas in Lebanon and they strongly condemned the attacks on un personnel and furthermore this statement defends the sovereignty of Syria and of Iran they said that Syria's sovereignty and territorial Integrity must be observed they condemned the illegal foreign military presence in Syria which is and which is a reference to the US military occupation they emphasize that the US military is illegally occupying Syrian territory and that the US sanctions and European
sanctions on Syria are illegal and violate international law they also condemned Israel's attacks on Iran which violate Iranian sovereignty and they condemned foreign intervention that is Western meddling in Africa and they emphasized the principle of African solutions to African problems without foreign meddling what's also interesting is the bricks Kazan declaration called for the establishment of a zone free of nuclear weapons in the Middle East which is a a clear sign that they oppose Israel having nuclear weapons it's the only country in the Middle East that has nuclear weapons and they they called for the prevention
of an arms race in outer space and they called for stopping the weaponization of outer space this is something that in the United Nations has been called for repeatedly and China and Russia have said they do not want an arms race in space they do not want to weaponize outer space however it's consistently the United States that opposes these resolutions and calls in the UN making it very clear the US does want an arms race and the US does want to weaponize space not the bricks countries which want peace so those are the main points
of the Kazan declaration that was signed by all brics members at this historic Summit in Russia in 202 24 I just wanted to provide an overview of this because if you follow the Western media there is very little information and of course it tends to be very biased against the bricks so with that said I'm going to conclude I am Ben Norton the editor-in-chief of geopolitical economy report if you like the reporting that we do please like And subscribe please share and I want to thank everyone for joining me today I will see you all
next time
