Leaders of the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) ended their summit in Johannesburg, South Africa on Friday last week. The summit had more significance than usual, given the current global economic environment.

First, they stepped to the front and showed they were prepared to play a stabilising role in the international system thrown into turmoil by leaders of countries that have generally set the rules by which the world has been ordered since World War Two. They showed that they were ready to defend the existing rules-based order, globalisation and free trade that have come under attack from rising nationalism and populism.

In this sense, the BRICS countries are no longer content to remain simply an association of emerging economies playing second fiddle to the older, advanced economies of the West and Japan. They have something to protect: their increasing wealth, power and influence globally.

This is precisely the point made in the declaration at the end of the summit. They "reaffirmed the centrality of the rules-based, transparent, non-discriminatory trading system as embodied in the World Trade Organisation (WTO), that predicts a trade environment”. The declaration further noted the, "unprecedented challenges” facing the multilateral trading system and underscored "the importance of an open world economy”.

Without naming him, the declaration was a response to United States President Donald Trump and his preference for unilateralism and protectionism.

The stand BRICS took further indicates that they are poised to fill the space being vacated by those retreating from the existing arrangements. 

The second significant point about the summit was its Africa focussed agenda. It included an Africa outreach session in which several African leaders, among them President Paul Kagame, representing the African Union and regional economic communities participated. This was a smart move in recognition of Africa’s growing importance in trade and international relations.

And as President Kagame said at the summit, there is a convergence of interests between BRICS and Africa, pointing out especially the shared interest in an open and fair international system. He also outlined areas in which Africa stood to gain.

One of these was that cooperation could benefit Africa’s youth in terms of employment opportunities.

Another was the benefits from increased collaboration in Africa’s ambitious infrastructure and industrialisation plans, and in peace and security. Then there is Africa’s need for more investment in technology.

Turning to Africa is smart. The BRICS countries seem to have sensed a withdrawal from Africa or a waning of interest by traditional western partners and are positioning themselves to fill the space that would be left.  They are also responding to a policy that has irked many Africans of taking Africa for granted or treating it as an inferior partner.

Indeed existing relations have been mainly with former colonial masters, of master and subject, of domination and therefore necessarily unequal.

None of the BRICS is a former colonial power and so the premise of relations is assumed to be different. That is the sense in which China’s growing presence in Africa must be seen. President Kagame was right on the mark with his statement that China deals with Africa as an equal and that that was revolutionary in world affairs.

But Africa has its own positive attractions. It is not simply a void to be filled or only a recipient of Chinese or Indian largesse. While there is a growing tendency elsewhere to break up all sorts of multilateral arrangements, Africa has gone ahead to create the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) because of the realisation that the collective interests of the continent lie in greater integration, not in small, fragmented markets.  And so Africa offers a big, unified and growing market.

In this climate of uncertainty and instability in the international system, the BRICS summit struck a reassuring note of calm and reason, and intention to restore stability.

It is not a case of posturing. The world seems to be crying out for guarantors of stability and counterweight to disruptive influences in order to maintain the necessary balance. There is really no choice. It is either to keep the present order as it is, protect it against attack and disruption and so maintain equilibrium, or allow disruption, chaos and a void.

As they say, nature abhors a vacuum. That is also true of the international system. Human society and its advancement has been built on order. It can also be said to abhor turmoil. The BRICS countries appear set to prevent the setting in of such a vacuum and disorder.

jorwagatare@yahoo.co.uk

@jrwagatare

The views expressed in this article are of the author.