He calmly acknowledged that it’s now more difficult for Russia to advance its foreign policy goals due to the US’ renewed attempt to dominate the global economy through coercion and force, but he still believes that BRICS will play a pivotal role in furthering the global systemic transition to multipolarity.
Andrew Korybko
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov recently gave an interview to TV BRICS
about their namesake organization and its role in the global systemic
transition. He began by contextualizing the present moment in history as
the interim period between the decline of US-led Western hegemony and
the rise of multiple centers of power and influence. These inverse
trends have led to friction because “the West is losing its hegemony but keeps on clinging to the institutions set up to secure that hegemony”.
The
US can no longer fairly compete within the ‘rules-based order’ shaped
by none other than itself several generations ago so it’s resorting to
“blatantly unfair methods” against its rivals, especially Russia. This
includes sanctioning its energy companies, weaponizing sanctions threats
against its “major strategic partners” like India
(whom Lavrov specified) “to restrict Russia’s trade, investment
cooperation, and military-technical ties” with them, and opposing the
creation of alternative platforms of any kind.
On
that last point, Lavrov clarified that “We are not advocating for the
IMF, the World Bank and the WTO to cease their existence” and that
“President Putin has said on many occasions that we are not the ones refusing to use the dollar.
The United States under President Joe Biden did everything to make the
dollar a weapon against those who are deemed objectionable.” BRICS,
its proposed economic-financial tools, and other alternative platforms
are only meant to complement existing ones and induce reform therein.
Russia’s
top diplomat soberly acknowledged that “given the global war unleashed
against us and the feverish attempts of the West to ‘punish’ all our
partners by demanding that they stop trading with us and cooperating in
the military-technical sphere, it is significantly harder to do our job
and to provide maximally favourable conditions for internal development
than it was, say, 10 or 15 years ago.” He also mildly criticized Trump
2.0 for essentially continuing “Bidenism” despite its rhetoric to the
contrary.
Far from respecting the ‘spirit of Anchorage’,
which refers to the verbal agreements reached during that summit for
resolving the Ukrainian Conflict and normalizing ties, “new sanctions
are imposed, a ‘war’ against tankers
in the open sea is being waged”, and more pressure placed on Russian
partners like India. Lavrov then accused the US of trying to control the
global energy industry in order “to dominate the global economy”, but
if it relents, then Russia would be eager to explore mutually beneficial
cooperation.
On that note, he concluded the interview by
circling back to Russia’s vision of BRICS’ role in the global systemic
transition, which he foresees “creating an architecture that will not be
subject to the illegal actions of one or another player from the
Western flank.” BRICS will also play a role in Russia’s “Greater
Eurasian Partnership”, which Lavrov suggested could lay the basis for a
“common ‘canopy’” over the continent, with the innuendo being that
Eurasia might one day have its own version of the AU or CELAC.
He didn’t say so, but the context implies that BRICS would then function as an alternative center of global governance
for reforming the world order in order to make it more equitable, the
goal of which would be advanced by assembling representatives from each
continental organization to discuss viable pathways thereto within this
‘mini-UN’. Through these means, Russia and the rest of the World Majority could continue furthering multipolar trends despite the newfound challenges posed by Trump 2.0.