2013 was a difficult year for the five BRICS countries. China and Brazil faced slowing growth, South Africa and India were hit by currency instability, and concern over Russia’s governance deepened (before recent events in the Ukraine pitched them into all-out crisis).
How effective are the BRICS in inspiring confidence in their public diplomacy? This question lies at the heart of their soft power.
Go to any conference in the world and say ‘Doha Development Agenda’, and the room is likely to empty. But not in China. Recently I was impressed with the degree of interest amongst China’s trade policy elite in the future of the World Trade Organization (WTO), and the global trading system of which it is a part.
Away from news headlines about oil, conflict and political instability, China has been developing a more involved engagement with the government of South Sudan and its ruling party, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM).
Greening economic development has become the consensus in China, although nobody is satisfied with the current situation.
Regional integration in Africa is still an active agenda item for African nations and pan-African institutions such as the African Union.
There are many faces to China’s presence in Sierra Leone and its present role there. Chinese investments, ‘gifts’ and trading activities have gone some way to reshaping the stereotype of Beijing as solely an exploiter of Africa’s minerals resources.
‘Don’t talk to me about giblets,’ International Relations and Co-operation Minister Maite Nkoane-Mashabane reportedly said during last week’s BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) business summit. This remark reveals several things about the nature of the BRICS forum, and co-operation on trade matters in particular.
In a move that has generated much excitement, South Africa has invited representatives from various African continental institutions, including regional economic blocs to the Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) Summit (26-27 March 2013).
Trade among the BRICS countries has shown progressive growth over the past decade.
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