Argentina Formally Requests Membership in the BRICS

At a BRICS forum on the “Fourth Industrial Revolution”, held on Sept. 6 in the Chinese city of Xiamen, Argentine ambassador to China, Sabino Vaca Narvaja, reported that President Alberto Fernandez had made a formal request to join the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa). The event was attended by by the Russian, South African and Brazilian ambassadors to China, as well as the Chinese Vice Minister of Industry Xin Guobin.

According to the daily Dangdai, forum participants had a lively discussion on the advantages and benefits of Argentina’s joining the group of five, especially given its role as a major world food producer and an energy powerhouse. In his remarks, Ambassador Vaca Narvaja was effusive about the BRICS role in the world, stating that this particular group of countries are going to become increasingly important in determining world macroeconomic stability and economic growth.

Reflecting the move by developing countries away from the “rules-based” order and toward non-alignment, Vaca Narvaja emphasized that the New Development Bank, created by the BRICS, “is without doubt the institutionalization of a new world order, the first real alternative to the Atlantic system of global financial governance, which has created so many problems for all emerging countries. We must create our own system that doesn’t condition or apply sanctions of any kind on our countries.” In his view, the strengthening of the NDB “is a decisive step toward creating a new financial architecture based on production and development”.

The growing role of the BRICS in the world was also taken up at the Sept. 10-11 conference by Professor Georgy Toloraya, the Deputy Chairman of the Board of the Russian National Committee on BRICS Research. He pointed out that one of the reasons why the countries in the non-Western part of the globe are excluded from the decision-making process is the unjust financial system, “centered around the dollar”. “This is why the call which is promoted by The LaRouche Organization for a New Bretton Woods system is, I think, very important and very relevant.”

The BRICS, he said, could soon be joined by other big countries, such as Argentina and Indonesia, and maybe Iran. “This is a real big force which can shape the global economic order and financial flows in a way which is more just and more satisfying to the whole world, not just a small number of rentiers in the so-called ‘golden billion countries’.

“I think this is exactly what Lyndon LaRouche, whose 100th anniversary we will celebrate soon, was striving for. And, I believe that this current conference is very topical for discussing of these issues and coming up with recommendations and ideas, which can be supported all over the world. So, I wish you all success.” (The full speech of Prof. Toloraya will soon be available on the Executive Intelligence Review website.