From Argentina on BRICS

Pepe Escobar pointed us to this, saying,  “Excellent analysis by my dear friend Vior in Buenos Aires.”   I translated via DeepL.com

The decision of the non-aligned bloc to incorporate our country into a different international system and gives us access to the New Development Bank (NDB).

This columnist ended his previous article, this very week, expressing the wish that Argentina could get on the train from Johannesburg that has left for the future. Thanks to Lula da Silva that wish has come true. We Argentines will never be sufficiently grateful to the Brazilian president for having taken us out of hell and seated us in the cockpit of the world to come.

The struggle was hard: until the last minute the South African government, pressured by its vice-president Paul Mashatile, resisted the enlargement of the bloc. India was indifferent, because it has no one to incorporate, but Russia, China and Brazil were in a hurry. Brazil, because it needs us inside to be able to trade with us in yuan and, via our forthcoming accession to the New Development Bank (NDB), for the possibility of accessing cheap loans for infrastructure investment (e.g., the second section of the Vaca Muerta gas pipeline).

In spite of the oscillations of Argentina’s foreign policy in the last three years, Russia is also interested in our incorporation, first, to counterbalance the continental hegemony of the USA with another member of the BRICS in the Southern Cone; second, because Russia looks towards Antarctica and the South Atlantic and does not want to give them away to the Anglo-Saxon alliance. Finally, also because it aspires to revive the energy and transport projects that were frozen at the beginning of the war in Ukraine.

China has been the most interested in our incorporation, because it needs to complete the installation of the pillars of its new construction of the world. In every region of the world, it wants to have reliable and weighty interlocutors with whom to deal under the terms of the United Nations Charter and the five principles of peaceful coexistence adopted in 1955 by the Bandung Conference, which gave rise to the Non-Aligned Movement.

The summit in South Africa proved decisive for the bloc’s enlargement

This is what it is all about: tired of the permanent violation of International Law and of the unfulfilled promises made by Western powers, more and more countries in the world are looking for an international system in which the rules of coexistence are respected, without hegemonism and without the financial power of a few to impose political conditions and automatic alignments.

Why is it useful for Argentina to join the bloc of non-aligned countries shortly before a decisive presidential election? In the first place, because it anchors the international location of our country in a new system that respects the self-determination of peoples and ensures non-interference in internal affairs. Let us remember that, although the government of Mauricio Macri did not intensify political ties with China, for example, it never neglected commercial exchange. It would be difficult for an eventual right-wing government to oppose the business prospects that are now opening up for Argentine companies.

If the current coalition in government continues, on the contrary, membership in the BRICS will provide a position of strength for future negotiations with Western financial organizations. Even a month ago the IMF bureaucracy was making us wait for the end of its vacation to decide whether to transfer us the funds we so desperately need. With the incorporation to the BRICS at the door, not only did it have to resign itself to a devaluation of the peso of only 20% (a lot anyway), but -against all doomsday forecasts- it agreed to transfer the 7.5 billion we need to get to the elections. It was not kindness, but calculation: if they did not do it, we would have suffered a shock, but the money would have arrived from Beijing.

Does this solve all our problems? Not at all. But now we are walking on a different parquet to face them. We can negotiate more calmly with foreign public and private banks, we can reject political conditioning, attend to the domestic market and relaunch transportation and energy projects that ensure a sustained, balanced and socially just development.

Accession to the NDB must be Argentina’s objective.

For the time being, the main urgency is to join the NDB and to agree with Brazil on the exchange in yuan.The second priority is to win the elections and consolidate a national and popular project.BRICS membership is not a blank check. All our new partners love predictability.Argentina must give continuity and consistency to its global policy. Together with the priority that relations with Brazil have, we must rebuild the link with all our neighbors and face the infrastructure plans that they are also interested in. There is much to be done to revive Unasur.Central America, Mexico and the Caribbean are also calling on us.

Let us take advantage of the new platform to access the powerful African market and let us strengthen our membership in the Belt and Road Initiative to open Asian markets.All this without fighting with the Western powers, but imposing a respectful treatment to them. By joining the BRICS we continue to relate to our usual partners, but from another place.

The task is not easy, but the prize is great: we will finally be sitting in the cockpit of the new world order.  For a second we did not miss the train to the future.