Values are now among the key forces shaping contemporary international affairs. As values increasingly take centre stage in geopolitical competition, the development of consensus on sovereign values shared by the World Majority is a must, writes Valdai Club Programme Director Oleg Barabanov.
What defines the particular characteristics of the contemporary moment in international relations is the global geopolitical fracture and polarization along the lines of the political West, on one side, and the global non-West and South on the other. Of key importance to the global agenda is the matter of strengthening solidarity among non-Western states—which make up the World Majority. The growing internal consolidation of institutional structures and procedural mechanisms of the World Majority is what forms the core of the only plausible and correct answer to the escalating pressure exerted by the political West against the Global South—pressure that intensified exceptionally during the presidency of Donald Trump. Among those structures and mechanisms, a special place belongs to BRICS—as well as the regional associations bringing together non-Western states and those of the Global South.
The value factor is what assumes central importance when it comes to this issue. Often it is values, not just geopolitics or economic interests, that come to define the strategies states pursue on the global stage.
It is precisely values that increasingly exert a significant influence on the political will to make and implement this or that decision in international affairs. It would not be an overstatement to argue that contemporary geopolitical rivalries largely reflect clashes between values. It is well known that countries comprising the political West strive to endow their values with a universal and non-negotiable character.
Under such conditions, the World Majority must work out a kind of values-based response, a values-based alternative to the expansion of Western values. This task is of importance for each state belonging to the Global non-West and South. Yet, in today’s environment, what may be no less important—perhaps even more so—is coordinating the value policies of the World Majority as a whole: developing a platform that articulates shared values to serve as the foundation for common action and political will. Without it, solidarity will remain but a buzzword on a piece of paper—one that may be recycled from one declaration to the next, yet never implemented in practice.
Of no less importance, though, is that the pursuit of this policy remains grounded in the actual—indeed, the natural, one might even say primordial—values shared by the societies of the World Majority. Whatever shape the formulation of values might take, knocking them together “out of bits and bobs” won’t be of much help—in fact, doing so will make things even worse.
The importance of those tasks became clear in the year 2025 as well. Among the outcomes of the Trump presidency’s first turbulent year one could point out the abrupt intensification of the pressure exerted by the United States against the countries of the Global South. Almost every major developing country ended up finding itself a target of Trump’s attack. This applies to South Africa, which became a recipient of the harshest accusations made by the US president. It applies to Brazil, which deals with pressure on both the tariff and political fronts. It applies to China, India, and numerous other countries. Finally, it applies to the entirety of BRICS as an association—which Trump perceives as a major challenge to American global leadership.
This pressure also surfaced within the G20—the only major platform where countries of the Global non-West and South are represented alongside the political West. South Africa’s G20 presidency in 2025 became a target of Trump’s pressure. His open dismissal of the South African presidency led to the US represented at the lowest possible level at the G20 summit in South Africa, with the American delegation headed by the US Chargé d’Affaires to the country.
Even greater pressure was exerted by Trump against South Africa during preparations for the United States’ G20 presidency in 2026. Trump refused to invite South Africa to participate in the work of the G20 throughout the year of America’s presidency. Following the refusal, Secretary of State Marco Rubio released an official statement levelling accusations against South Africa, which served as a justification for not extending an invitation.
As we know, it was Poland that received an invitation to participate in the G20 in South Africa’s place under the US presidency. Aside from the fact that this decision will lead to a shift in the G20 balance of power between counties belonging to the political West and those of the Global non-West and South, its importance is reflected in another way. For the first time, a member state was barred from participating in the group’s work. Moreover, this was done not by consensus, but unilaterally by the presiding state—and the excluded member was specifically a nation of the Global South. Thus, the barring of South Africa could be perceived as a serious challenge for BRICS solidarity in actual international affairs.
Notably, it was experts from South Africa who argued most openly in 2025 that BRICS solidarity would prove hollow if confined to paper. They were warning that South Africa, as the ever-weak link, was left to face Trump’s pressure on its own—and that they sense no real support from BRICS.
The experience of the 2025 tariff wars has also made it clear that states of the Global South responded individually to Trump’s pressure, with no “united front” emerging. This underscores the vital importance of coordinating the political will of the World Majority—a task that is impossible unless their shared foundation of values is first consolidated.
It should be also pointed out that the value of solidarity is something that constitutes an integral part of the BRICS spirit currently taking shape. A description of the BRICS spirit and the values it’s built upon—that includes solidarity—can be encountered every year in the preamble for the BRICS summit declarations, starting in 2022.
It is not just within the context of the response to the actions of President Trump that solidarity among BRICS states and those of the Global non-West and South is important. Solidarity is key to an effective pushback against both neo-colonialism and the problem of Global South states growing increasingly dependent on the powers that be of international politics. It is no accident that the topic of strengthening solidarity in the face of the fight against inequality, poverty, and dependence—the main legacy of colonialism—is currently front and centre for states that are part of BRICS and other associations originating in the Global South. We should point out that Russia has always placed emphasis on extending support to the Global South in this just cause. Resisting neo-colonialism is among the key priorities of Russian foreign policy.
Another important aspect of solidarity between the countries of the Global Non-West and South is solidarity on the issue of collective memory. The year 2025—marking the anniversary of the Soviet victory in the Great Patriotic war and the Allied victory over Germany and Japan in the Second World War—revealed how crucial this aspect remains.
Altogether, strengthening solidarity in values among the World Majority countries is by no means an abstract concept—it remains intimately linked to the realities of contemporary global geopolitical struggles. The very place of non-western states in global politics may depend on how effectively said solidarity develops.
