South African President Cyril Ramaphosa with fellow BRICS leaders President of Brazil Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, President of China Xi Jinping pose for a family photo with delegates, including six nations invited to join the BRICS group, Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. (Photo by Per-Anders Pettersson/Getty Images)
Saudi Arabia is still considering whether it will join the Brics bloc, pending an invitation, its ambassador to South Africa, Sultan Al Angari, said during an interview with the Mail & Guardian.
The country believes that if it is to succeed, the Brics bloc should be an economic forum and not a political one.
The expansion of Brics, which currently includes Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, to include Saudi Arabia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) means the bloc would have six out of the nine top oil-producing countries as members. Ramaphosa made the announcement on the new members during last month’s 15th Brics summit in Johannesburg.
Saudi Arabia’s decision to join hangs in part on its concern about whether Brics could be used in a political proxy war.
“The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia would like to ensure that joining will not lead to alignment against other countries or groups, and it does not affect the kingdom’s political positions,” Angari told the M&G.
The invitation to join the formation will outline the guiding principles and criteria for each country to assume membership, which Saudi Arabia expects will address some of its questions.
Anxiety over Brics eclipsing some of the world’s organisations, including the G7, dominated the conversation during talks of expanding the bloc. This was expressed by South Africa’s Brics emissary, Anil Sooklal, during a public lecture in KwaZulu-Natal in August.
“Brics has been a catalyst for a tectonic change you will see in the global geopolitical architecture starting with the summit,” he said.
Saudi Arabia is the world’s biggest oil producer, accounting for 15% of global output, with the United States as its biggest customer.
During the last day of last month’s Brics summit in Johannesburg, Ramaphosa announced that Saudi Arabia, Iran, Ethiopia, the United Arab Emirates, Argentina and Egypt would join the group.
With the inclusion of the six new members, the Brics alliance’s collective economy would climb to 37% of the world’s GDP in terms of purchasing power parity, from about 32%.
In contrast, the G7 now contributes 30.7% of global GDP, down from the early 2000s, when the group accounted for more than 40% of the world’s GDP.
Although the Saudi kingdom has welcomed the invitation, Angari said it is waiting for the invitation in writing and its details.
“According to the internal procedures in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, joining an international organisation or group requires a set of procedures,” he said.
“These procedures cannot be completed before the information related to membership is complete, including the obligations and duties resulting from membership, the decision-making mechanism, and any other related matters, and the duration of study cannot be accurately predicted.
“The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s recent accession to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, for example, took a long period of time because the internal procedures dragged on for several months.
“It is not possible to predict the period required to complete the study and subsequent procedures, but the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will be keen to complete them as quickly as possible.”
Sooklal, told the M&G that the criteria to join the bloc had been finalised and agreed on by consensus.
“It is a confidential document. We are in the process of formalising the invitation to the six new members as announced by Ramaphosa at the summit,” he said.
Angari said in light of the diversity of the orientation of members of this group, Saudi Arabia’s joining it — with what he called its moderate policies — would strengthen its balance.
He said the goal of the economic group focuses on the development of countries, enabling it to become an important partner in international development with various nations of the world, and Saudi Arabia’s joining could positively influence its decisions.
“Saudi Arabia is distinguished by its international work at various levels, whether in regional, international or substantive gatherings,” he said.
“Saudi Arabia believes in the importance of activating the role of international gatherings and organisations and the resulting positive impact on the progress of work and international cooperation and the quality of its outputs. Saudi Arabia always seeks, through its international work, to advance its interests in order to achieve the goals of its vision 2030.
“During the past few years, and in order to achieve its interests at all levels, the Kingdom has joined a number of regional and international groupings, including: the Indian Ocean Rim Association, the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia (TAC), and is in the process of joining a number of other groupings.
“Saudi Arabia has also established a number of groupings and organisations such as the Digital Cooperation Organization and the Green Middle East Initiative, and will continue its work in the process of forming groupings,” Angari added.
During a national address on Sunday, Ramaphosa said the Brics summit had decided that the finance ministers or central bank governors of member countries should consider the use of various countries’ local currencies, payment instruments and platforms in international trade and financial transactions.
He said the leaders of the bloc had agreed that it could be more effective by building partnerships with other countries that share its aspirations and perspectives.
“Through an expanded Brics, we will be able to better align the voices of those countries that seek a fairer global governance, financial, investment and trading system based on clear rules that apply equally to all countries,” Ramaphosa said.
“An expanded Brics also means that we will be able to export more of our products to major markets and, as a result, we will be able to produce more and create more jobs.”
He said South Africa stood to benefit more from the expansion, having already achieved great benefit from relations with Brazil, Russia, India and China.
“These countries are important destinations for South Africa’s products and services. They are important sources of investment and are becoming even more important as tourism markets,” Ramaphosa said.