British-controlled media outlets Reuters and Bloomberg took the point over the last two weeks to issue numerous articles insisting that the upcoming Aug. 22-24 BRICS summit in Johannesburg, South Africa would not, repeat not, agree to the expansion of that five-nation group (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa). According to South African officials, 22 nations from every continent have formally applied for admission, and another 20 or so have expressed interest in joining. But this will not happen, Reuters and Bloomberg “reported,” because Brazil and India, in particular, were against any such expansion – in both cases citing “anonymous officials” as their sources.
But the media campaign backfired, big time. The President of Brazil himself, Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, told the press midweek that Brazil was in favor of expansion. And on Aug. 3, India’s Foreign Ministry’s spokesman Arindam Bagchi stressed that the claims about his country being against the expansion of BRICS are also false. “We have seen some baseless speculations and untrue reports in some media that the country is against BRICS expansion… that India has reservations against expansion [of BRICS]. This is simply not true,” he said.
Numerous media outlets in the BRICS nations also saw right through the British attempt to play divide-and-conquer, and exposed the operation.
