South Africa and China find common ground on Brics expansion

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The leaders of South Africa and China said they have found common ground on expanding the Brics emerging market bloc, as a summit of the grouping that includes Brazil, Russia, and India was launched in Johannesburg.

South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa said that “South Africa and China have similar views on the expansion of Brics membership” as he hosted Xi Jinping for a state visit on Tuesday ahead of talks where Beijing is pushing to add weight to the Brics as a rival to the G7.

“We should strengthen strategic co-operation . . . and promote representation of countries in the Global South,” Xi said on only his second trip abroad so far this year.

Brazil’s president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Indian prime minister Narendra Modi are also attending, with their governments relatively sceptical of Brics expansion on terms that would dilute their influence in the bloc and embellish China’s claim to lead the developing world.

Also at the summit will be Indonesia’s Joko Widodo and Iran’s Ebrahim Raisi among leaders of countries that have expressed interest in becoming Brics members. The Indonesian president’s visit will be part of his first trip to Africa.

Sergey Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, arrived on Tuesday in place of Vladimir Putin, who was staying away from the summit because South Africa would have been legally obliged to arrest him over his indictment by the International Criminal Court for war crimes in Ukraine.

Ramaphosa, Xi, Modi and Lula will meet later on Tuesday, following the summit’s launch with a Brics business forum in Sandton, Johannesburg’s financial centre.

Officials familiar with pre-summit discussions have said that talks have focused on generating possible admissions criteria for new Brics entrants, which the current members would have decide whether to approve.

Analysts have said that because of the internal disagreements in the Brics, the Johannesburg summit could ultimately agree on these criteria but leave admitting new members to future meetings.

“Brazil, India, and South Africa do not want their clout to diminish in an expanded group,” said Ziyanda Stuurman, senior Africa analyst at Eurasia Group. 

“Nor, however, do they want to pay a political price for thwarting expansion given that China is strongly pushing for it and several countries hope to join the bloc,” she said.

The summit will also discuss an initiative by the Brics countries to use their local currencies in trade between themselves rather than invoicing in the US dollar, but analysts and diplomats do not expect a common currency to be placed on the agenda.

“This local currency expansion will principally focus on the renminbi, supported by China’s assertive internationalisation agenda,” analysts at South Africa’s Standard Bank said.