Special interview-Brazil, 17th BRICS summit underway

teleSUR English

Interview with Ermelinda Malcotte, international analyst, about the 17th BRICS Summit taking place from July 5 to 6 in Brazil. teleSUR

Transcript

00:00We continue with the analysis of this important 17th RIG Summit. For that we

00:04are joined by Ermerlinda Malkot, International Analyst. It's always a

00:08pleasure to have you. Welcome again to From the South, Ermerlinda. It's a pleasure

00:13to be here with you. Ermerlinda, yesterday Sunday we saw the first

00:17plenary sessions, the first days of discussion, and there was a final

00:20declaration calling for an end to hostilities and for a stronger

00:23integration of multilateral systems. What can you tell us so far of what

00:27happened in that first day of discussion at this RIG Summit?

00:32Well, it was a very interesting RIG Summit and what is interesting is

00:37also that it was in the short continuity with the previous RIG

00:41summits in Kazan in Russia. So what happened here is that what has

00:46been set up in Kazan where it was a huge discussion about economic

00:51tools for concerning the domination of the dollar, all those

00:56elements that has been stated and theorized and presented in Kazan

01:00BRICS has been also bring here and they are profundizing those tools.

01:07And they have, for example, reconduct Dilma Rousseff at the head of the

01:12National New Development Bank. So we see that all that has been put in

01:17place last year is following its work. So this is one very important thing.

01:22Also, what we have seen is that the BRICS have integrated lots of new

01:27countries as members or partners. And so what happened here is that the

01:33integration process was taking shape. And we had the final declaration that

01:39was omitted. And what was interesting is that they were not only focused on

01:44economic and trade subject, but also on geopolitical questions, as we have seen

01:50war being very important in the Middle East against, of course, the Palestinian

01:57people in Iran. So they had managed with a very high diversity of countries that we

02:03have in the BRICS today, they have managed to have a declaration that was signed by

02:09everyone. So it's not the most radical declaration. For example, Iran maybe would have

02:18aimed for a more radical condemnation of the attacks against the country. But still,

02:23it is a great result to have a common declaration of all countries that have signed

02:30that final declaration. So this is huge steps. First, continuity of the economical

02:35tools. And second, agreeing on very important geopolitical assets. And the third thing that has

02:43always also to be stressed is that every country present has condemned and wants to give solutions

02:50to the tariff policy of the United States. Referring to what you were just saying about the tariff

02:56policies of the US, we saw as the BRICS continues to try to move forward to build a multilateral world

03:02in the future. We see very quickly the reaction of US President Trump who threatened to impose

03:0810% extra tariffs on the countries that are members or partners or support the BRICS group.

03:13How do we read this moment of Trump immediately acting, reacting more like to the BRICS union,

03:20that they come and try to threaten to coerce countries not to be part of this initiative,

03:25multilateral initiative? Well, we have to remember that a few months ago,

03:31Trump has threatened to put the 100% tariffs and now it's 10% tariffs. So maybe it's a good news.

03:38He changes his ideas all the time. But what was interesting is that in the same declaration

03:44when he was talking about 10% tariff, he explained that the BRICS dedolarization process is a threat

03:52against the United States. Of course, it's not a threat to the United States as a nation, but it's a

03:57threat of the United States as an imperialist country because all the dollar system has been created

04:05to suck the money and the wealth from the south, from the poorest countries, from the developing

04:11countries, to be brought into the United States. And the thing is that the United States is able to

04:18to have so much worth to finance its worth to finance it to finance because it's sucking the wealth of the

04:27other countries and especially the south countries. So of course, it's a threat to the United States as

04:33an imperialist country. And he's seeing that nowadays the BRICS countries have developed a lot

04:41the commerce between them and the commerce outside the dollar and also outside of the finance social

04:48institution by the United States. So this is very important and it's threatening. But what is even

04:54more threatening for him is that he realizes that also the financial tools, the reserve currencies and

05:02investments in the are going to change also. For the moment, it's a very crazy situation where the

05:09south invests into the United States and especially in treasury bonds. And now what BRICS is trying to do

05:16is invest from the south to the south. So this is really, yes, it will, on the long term, have a strong

05:24impact on the imperialist system. And this is why Donald Trump is panicking for the moment.

05:30Right now, the BRICS summit continues on its second and final day, but today's agenda is more focused on

05:36climate change and global health. What can you tell us about this subject within BRICS and what actions can be

05:41taken moving forward to tackle these issues? Well, first of all, what has to be stressed is that

05:49for the south to develop tools, develop technologies, to develop ways to respond to the climate change and

05:58also to have good health system, to develop vaccine, to develop biotechnologies and so on, the south has to

06:04be developed. And as I just said, the south is sub-developed by the imperialist

06:13mechanism. So BRICS aims to give the opportunity to the south to develop themselves without the

06:20geopolitical tools of the IMF and so on that just wants to bring the south at the service of the north.

06:27So if, and we have seen, for example, that in Cuba, where the government has really strongly pushed

06:34for developing a health system and biotechnologies, vaccines and so on, the excellency of the

06:43health products. So this is a model for the south countries, but also what we have seen is that when a

06:52country of the country of the south wants to develop its technologies and wants to do it alternately and

06:59not being subject to the United States, well, they are facing sanctions. So the BRICS, the BRICS

07:06configuration tries to shield the south country against the sanction from the United States to permit

07:13the developing countries and not only developing countries, because China is way more than the developing

07:19countries to develop and to flourish for those urgent topics like climate change or public health and

07:27to develop and being able to respond to it without depending on the United States and without being

07:32subject to sanctions from the United States. Thank you very much, Merlinda, for your input

07:37this very early in the morning regarding everything that is happening right now in BRICS in the 17th

07:42summit held in Brazil. Well, thank you very much for inviting me. As always, our pleasure to have you with us.

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