The upcoming ninth BRICS Summit in the Chinese coastal city of Xiamen will send a strong signal to the world of the growing significance of developing countries, and that globalizing forces have shifted from western countries to emerging economies, said French expert David Gosset.
During a recent interview with Xinhua, Gosset, founder of the Europe-China Forum and the New Silk Road Initiative, said that within less than a decade, the BRICS Summit has evolved into an impactful forum whose importance is proportionate with the growing economic and political weight of its members.
"The BRICS dynamics point at a century defined by the growing significance of the South-South relations," Gosset said." When trade increasingly links the BRICS countries whose combined GDP is more than 20 percent of the world economy, Western Europe and North America do not stand in the middle anymore."
This year's gathering signals that despite calls for new versions of unilateralism and protectionism, deepening interdependence among nations is a reality.
"The West might fear a globalization that it prompted. The United States of America can be tempted by protectionism but this can't trigger a de-globalization, the globalizing forces have simply shifted from one source to another, it is around non-Western regions that new forms of multilateralism and cooperation are taking shape," Gosset said.
According to Gosset, the BRICS dynamics are engineered by the developing countries for their own benefit but they also contribute to global stability.
"As mentioned in the Goa declaration following the 8th BRICS Summit, the first set of loans by the NDB (New Development Bank) to support projects involving renewable energy put sustainability and the commitment to fight climate change at the top of the BRICS agenda," he said.
Gosset also referred to the establishment of a Contingent Reserve Arrangements (CRA), a BRICS mechanism to provide a financial safety net for countries exposed to market fluctuations.
In regards to the BRICS New Development Bank, he said it "enriches the global financial landscape. It does not contradict the system born at the Bretton Woods Conference at the end of the Second World War, but it complements it and is the reflection of a new distribution of power."
The BRICS is a grouping of five major emerging economies -- Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The ninth BRICS summit will be held in September in Xiamen.
