The Lead

The Global Majority Speaks: A Billion More People Just Joined the BRICS!

by Dennis Small (EIRNS) — Oct. 24, 2024

The 16th BRICS Summit drew to a close today in Kazan, Russia, with the announcement that the nine current members of the BRICS had agreed to invite 13 countries to join as new “partner states”—representing nearly 1 billion human beings! The BRICS grouping now represents over 4.6 billion people—57% of the world’s population: the Global Majority, to be sure.

More important than the numbers as such, are the policies and principles to which they are committed.

China’s President Xi Jinping, in his Oct. 23 address to the opening session of the summit, called on the BRICS to help guide the world along “the overarching trend of peace and development.” Xi asked his fellow leaders: “Should we allow the world to descend into the abyss of disorder and chaos, or should we strive to steer it back on the path of peace and development?” He answered that the BRICS shared an “unwavering determination” and “willpower” to build “a shared future for mankind.”

Speaking just before President Xi, Russian President Vladimir Putin had stated: “We have assumed responsibility for the future of the world, not only in word, but in deed.” Putin later told the BRICS Plus/Outreach session: “All our countries share similar aspirations, values and a vision of a new democratic world order that reflects cultural and civilizational diversity. We are confident that such a system should be guided by the universal principles of respect for the legitimate interests and sovereign choice of nations, respect for international law and a spirit of mutually beneficial, honest co-operation.”

Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov elaborated on the BRICS’s purpose and principles, in order to explain why the BRICS is not closed to any nation, even members of NATO or the EU (the admission of NATO-member Türkiye as a new BRICS “partner state” served to prove his point): “There is a political will that unites countries that share the same vision of development prospects. Be it political development, economic development, cultural development and so on. It is an atmosphere in which each other’s interests are taken into account. It is an atmosphere where there are no hegemonic aspirations.”

As the BRICS summit drew to a close, the urgent strategic question lingered in the air: Will the West now listen to the BRICS, cooperate with the Global Majority, and stop the drive to nuclear war?

EIR’s correspondents in Kazan posed precisely that question at a press conference given by Russian Presidential advisor Anton Kobyakov. “Even if the BRICS is not anti-West, the West is currently anti-BRICS,” EIR's Sébastien Périmony began. “If this does not change, we have the risk of nuclear war in the conflicts occurring in Ukraine and the Middle East, and a perpetuation of sanctions. Do you think the BRICS process will change the outlook of the Anglo-American elites, to participate positively in developing a new security and development architecture, as called for by Helga Zepp-LaRouche of the Schiller Institute?”

Kobyakov’s response was blunt: “We hope the Anglo-American elites will respond positively. But we have a doctrine of nuclear deterrence. When the Pax Americana ends, we hope that the whole world does not go down with it.” He added, referring to both Israel and the United States: “Maybe after hearing the speeches during the BRICS meetings, they will come to their senses. We hope so.”

The BRICS summit has now handed us that opportunity. Our activities in the United States and Europe over the next days and weeks will speak volumes to that decisive, open question.