Valdai Club

The geographical balance of the new additions to BRICS clearly illustrates this intention. However, just like the original group and the currently expanded BRICS+, they present heterogeneities and asymmetries that will likely pose challenges in the future for consensus-building, Andrés Serbin writes.

The recent XIV virtual summit of the BRICS, hosted and chaired by China, has fostered a revitalisation of the group. It is occurring within the framework of a complex and uncertain transition and reconfiguration of the international system.

The COVID-19 pandemic has probably caused the greatest economic, political and social damage to humanity since World War II. In fact, it will accelerate and deepen some of the pre-existing processes and trends and will confront us with new challenges and scenarios at the global level, the scope of which we barely glimpse.

The current crisis opens up new opportunities for strengthening international cooperation and developing new directions. From a Latin American perspective, building ties between the United States and Russia in the fight against the pandemic helps to balance and maintain a diversified relationship, write Andrés Serbin and Andrei Serbin Pont, following a discussion “USA, Russia and Latin America: an Agenda for Constructive Cooperation in the Post-Covid 19 Era”.

Although the current pandemic imposes immediate and imperative responses, it also has important geopolitical and social implications, writes Andrés Serbin, Executive President of CRIES; Co-Chair of the Asia and the Americas section of the Latin American Studies Association (LASA).

The preparation of the next BRICS Summit in Brasilia in November 2019 faced several challenges, starting with the expectations about the ambiguous role that could play the host´s country President Jair Bolsonaro. The preparatory meeting of Foreign Ministers in Rio de Janeiro last Friday was expected to be a test for the commitment of the Brazilian government regarding its role as a host to the Summit and as a member of the group, particularly after its proclaimed position of alignment with Trump’s U.S. administration policies.

The good news is that dialogue between Washington and Moscow regarding Venezuela seems to be re-established. But this is not the only game in town: many various actors will try to have a say regarding any negotiations that eventually will follow after Sochi.

In a country ravaged by a humanitarian crisis due to the unprecedented lack of capacity by governing actors to adequately manage the world’s largest proven oil reserves, the political confrontation is intertwined between domestic, regional and global interests.