Speaking Sept. 6 at a BRICS forum in the Chinese city of Xiamen, Argentine ambassador to China, Sabino Vaca Narvaja, reported that his government has formally requested that it be granted membership in the BRICS. According to the ambassador, President Alberto Fernandez had sent a letter to President Xi Jinping to this effect which was delivered last week. The Xiamen forum on the subject of the Fourth Industrial Revolution was also attended by the Russian, South African and Braziian ambassadors, whose governments are BRICS members, as well as the Chinese Vice Minister of Industry and the governor of Fujian, where Xiamen is located. India’s ambassador was not present.
According to the daily Dangdai, forum participants had a lively discussion on the advantages and benefits of Argentina’s joining the BRICS, especially given its role as a major world food producer and an energy powerhouse. In his remarks, Ambassador Vaca Narvaja was effusive about the BRICS role in the world, stating that this particular group of countries are going to become increasingly important in determining world macroeconomic stability and economic growth.
Reflecting the fact that developing countries are increasingly moving in a non-aligned direction away from the “rules-based” order, Vaca Narvaja emphasized that the BRICS New Development Bank “is without doubt the institutionalization of a new world order, the first real alternative to the Atlantic system of global financial governance, which has created so many problems for all emerging countries. We must create our own system that doesn’t condition or apply sanctions of any kind on our countries.”
