BRICS Expanding
Global Power Shifting Away From West, While BRICS Expanding & Increasing Legitimacy. The world is going to be “at least bi-polar and possibly multi-polar”, according to Tony Blair
For the first time in modern history the East can be on equal terms with the West, as the global dominance of the US and its allies comes to an end, former British prime minister Tony Blair has said.
China, which is “already the world’s second superpower,” will compete with the West “not just for power but against our system, our way of governing and living,” the Labour politician warned. Beijing “will not be alone. It will have allies. Russia now for sure. Possibly Iran.”
RT / 17 July, 2022
Sputnik / 15 July, 2022
Turkey, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia may “very soon” join BRICS, a group of emerging economies comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, according to the entity’s International Forum President Purnima Anand.
“Starting with the global pandemic and continuing with the food crisis, soaring inflation, the conflict in Ukraine, the global economic system has shown weakness,” says Yusuf Erim, Turkish foreign policy expert and editor-at-large at TRT World, Turkey’s English language public broadcaster. “I think this is leading many countries to reevaluate their financial and economic positions, their financial and economic dependencies.”
According to Erim, a group like the BRICS provides an opportunity for other countries to diversify their economic alliances and join a club of rapidly growing emerging nations.
“Like it or not, the financial and economic US hegemony that we saw over the past century is coming to a close slowly,” the Turkish expert says. “Groups like the BRICS will definitely be eating away the US market share.”
Purnima Anand, the president of the BRICS International Forum, told Russian newspaper Izvestia earlier this week that Turkey, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia are preparing to formally apply for BRICS membership.
“I hope that the accession of countries to BRICS will happen very quickly, because now all representatives of the core of the association are interested in enlargement. So it will be very soon,” Anand said.
Previously, Li Kexin, the head of the Department of International Economic Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China, also hinted at the possibility of Turkey, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia’s accession to the bloc during a press conference after the 14th BRICS summit.
Growing Dissatisfaction With Washington
Riyadh, Cairo, and Ankara have good reasons to feel disenchanted with Washington and particularly the Biden administration. During the 2020 presidential campaign, Biden vowed to turn Saudi Arabia into a “pariah state” and pledged “no more blank checks for Trump’s ‘favorite dictator'”, in reference to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi over alleged human rights abuses.
Having assumed office, Biden halted support for the Saudi-led coalition and its military operations in Yemen, put US-Saudi arms deals on pause, started talks over the resumption of the Iran nuclear deal, and accused the Saudi crown prince of “approving” the 2018 murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, something that Riyadh has resolutely denied.
In June 2021, The Wall Street Journal reported that the Pentagon had been pulling approximately eight Patriot anti-missile batteries from countries, including Iraq, Kuwait, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia. An antimissile system known as the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system was withdrawn from Saudi Arabia too, according to the newspaper.
Washington has monumentally failed to address Riyadh’s security concerns, according to Dr. Ali Demirdas, political analyst and a former Fulbright scholar who taught Middle East politics and Turkish foreign policy at the College of Charleston. After the US withdrew the Patriot missile system from Saudi Arabia, the kingdom’s oil refineries were attacked multiple times by Yemeni Houthi rebels, according to the academic.
Likewise, the Biden administration froze out the Egyptian leadership for quite a while after taking the reins in January 2021. Washington cancelled $130 million in military aid to Egypt over “human rights concerns” in January 2022, just days after approving a massive $2.5 billion arms sale to the country.
Amid mounting criticism over human rights issues from Washington, Cairo is more eager to rely on Moscow, especially when it comes to food and wheat supplies, according to Demirdas. “Bread is everything for Egypt,” the professor highlights.
Turkey’s frictions with the two latest American administrations are also well-documented. Ankara remains outraged by Washington’s support for the Kurdish People’s Protection Units, which the Turks see as an affiliate of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Furthermore, Turkey, a longtime NATO ally, was expelled from the F-35 fighter jet program in 2019 and subjected to threats from the US over its decision to buy Russia’s S-400 anti-missile systems.
“America’s unwavering support for Turkey’s arch-enemy the PKK in Syria has led to Ankara’s complete departure from Washington’s orbit,” Demirdas says. “This is cemented by Turkey’s purchase of Russian S-400s.”
With more and more countries now looking away from the United States and seeking to join other groups to provide economic support and diversify their markets, “this will be a blow to the United States,” according to Erim.
And it shall come to pass in that day,” saith the Lord God, “that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day.
And I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentation; and I will bring up sackcloth upon all loins and baldness upon every head; and I will make it as the mourning for an only son, and the end thereof as a bitter day. Amos 8:9-10
Behold, the eyes of the Lord God are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from off the face of the earth, except that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob,” saith the Lord. Amos 9:8
Joel Huan
The Mystery of Ephraim 