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00:00And to go deep into the relevance of this meeting, we invite Dr. Yvonne Tellez, international law expert.
00:06Hi, Yvonne, and thank you for joining us.
00:09Good afternoon, Alejandra. Happy to be here.
00:13Yvonne, to what extent has BRICS evolved from an economic blog into a geopolitical counterweight to Western-led alliances, like, for example, NATO, G7?
00:23Well, the fact that the BRICS began in 2006 with only five countries, and now it includes 11 full members, represents, well, a greater impact,
00:40taking into account that this expansion of the BRICS represents over 46 of the global population,
00:51and controls nearly half of the global oil production.
00:56That means it gains a broader voice in global trade, finance, and diplomacy.
01:04Sorry.
01:04However, however, due to this economic and geopolitical weight, the BRICS haven't, hasn't been, I mean,
01:18they are not pretending to be just like the anti-Western movement or the anti-Western group,
01:29as, as, as, as, I mean, by itself, because they are echoing for the return of the respect of multilateralism,
01:40of the respect to international law, to, to, to international legal regulations regarding commerce.
01:49So, what I think is they, they do represent a counterweight, they do represent an important,
01:57a very important voice for the global South, and for the developing countries.
02:02But what I find interesting is that they are not presenting themselves,
02:07I mean, the countries, um, within the BRICS, um, group,
02:15they are not presenting themselves just as a counterweight, uh, but a direct counterweight
02:22to the Western, uh, powers, but just like another, another
02:27very important factor of the political scenario, but, however, we all know what do, what, uh,
02:37these countries, um, represent, as I said before, regarding, uh, economy, global trade, finance.
02:47So, it's like a soft power that we can see over here regarding, uh, the, regarding what is behind the BRICS.
02:56Um, and as I, I, I want to highlight what I said before, uh, is the fact that they are not presenting themselves
03:06as, um, a challenging power, but just as a soft power with all these, uh, characteristics that I've already mentioned.
03:15And also, one of the main themes of, of the 17th summit is multilateral peace, is security architecture as well.
03:23How might the expansion of BRICS with countries now, like Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, reshape the bloc's position
03:31on global conflict resolutions, taking into account that this summit is actually taking place a few weeks
03:36after the 12-day confrontation between Iran and, and Israel?
03:39Yes, uh, well, in one, in, in, in the first, um, thing is that, uh, this geopolitical, um, I mean,
03:52this expansion increases this geopolitical power, as I said before, uh, this geopolitical weight.
03:58But also, it reaches, uh, some kind of complexity regarding agreement, because, um, those 11 countries
04:07over here, those are very divergent and different political regimes, uh, ranging from very liberal
04:16democracies to some very authoritarian regimes, very, very, uh, different. So, that could be,
04:24uh, that could, uh, we know, of course, that, uh, that, uh, like, um, a challenge, uh, for, uh,
04:32a consensus and agreed and a simple consensus, um, around the BRICS, because we see that we have
04:43different, different, um, positions over here, for example, regarding the Israeli, uh, the Israel
04:49and Iran conflict. Uh, so, it, it, it, it represents a, a very difficult diplomatic position. For example,
04:56Iran recently admitted that, um, the BRICS, uh, represented and, and, and expressed their solidarity
05:07with this country. Uh, and, uh, it also has seeked for this solidarity among the BRICS. However,
05:15Russia and China have expressed their qualified, uh, support for Iran. Uh, they have called these actions,
05:24the Iran's actions as self-defense, uh, against the Israeli aggression. But Brazil, India, and South Africa,
05:35they have, uh, like, uh, um, a restrained neutrality. Uh, I think maybe mindful of some broader
05:43international partnerships or regional implications. And I'm talking about the U.S., for example,
05:48because India is, um, uh, a strong partner of the U.S. also, it's Brazil. So, I think that this could be,
05:57uh, uh, a kind of, uh, uh, a very difficult challenge. Uh, because, for example, we have to
06:04take into account the terms like self-defense, uh, occupation, uh, uh, and those terms, uh, in the,
06:11in the international political scenario are highly contested, are, are, are not that
06:17easy to qualify and not that easy to expose due to these diplomatic tensions.
06:26So I think that either this declaration has to come and when the summit is finished, maybe
06:35they have to adopt a very diplomatic, very kind of a diplomatically bag or a kind of
06:43a symbolic language because the different positions of the countries that are a part
06:51of the BRICS could represent a very different or a very challenging consensus, just a straightforward
07:01consensus regarding this declaration and regarding this position.
07:05So this is some of the challenges that the BRICS face here and also Brazil as well.
07:12Because since it is a host and it has been like playing this position of neutrality, taking
07:24close ties with the U.S. but with this, of course, the difference that we all know, but also maintaining
07:31this other alliances over here and trying to strengthen the Global South poise.
07:36So we have to look also to who's the host over here and that will just bring more significance
07:45to what I just said before.
07:49And mentioning other challenges, for example, technology and artificial intelligence are also
07:54being key issues in today's agenda.
07:57How can BRICS promote new frameworks for safeguarding national sovereignty in this digital age that
08:03is marked by disinformation and cyber interference?
08:08Well, the BRICS and also with a strong leadership of Brazil, they have advocated for very big reforms
08:22within the international system like the IMF, for example, democratization of the IMF, the reform
08:32of the UN Security Council.
08:34So that means like breaking and changing some very strong global decision making structures.
08:43In that sense, I think that this could be a very good opportunity for Brazil to exert this
08:52leadership within the summit to adopt some of these topics, but with a strong advocate for the inclusion
09:09of these developed countries and these global South countries into these topics.
09:15I'm talking about artificial intelligence, new technologies.
09:21Let's also consider that we have very strong powers over here that are also taking the lead
09:30within the scope of technologies and just let's think about China as the biggest example.
09:38So I think the advocacy here goes to the democratization of power and the democratization of these global
09:47trade chains and that means that we can expect a kind of a, and I'm going to say the word again,
09:54a kind of a democratization regarding the usual powers always managing and handling these lines of commerce
10:05as well as regarding these topics.
10:08However, I see as another challenge, for example, the absence of China's president, Xi Jinping.
10:17We know that the reasons why Putin is not attending the summit personally, but I don't think that, for example,
10:26regarding your question and regarding the topics that we're talking about, talking about technology and artificial intelligence,
10:33I think the absence of China, not the absence of China, China's president, but the absence of the president,
10:40could diminish a little bit the influence that Brazil is trying to take the lead within and towards these topics.
10:50However, I don't think that this could or will stop at least the good faith and the good intentions
11:00to try to reposition this block, this counterweight block regarding this topic.
11:11So let's see what we can expect and what comes along after the summit is finished regarding the artificial intelligence and technology issues.
11:23As you mentioned, let's see what happens. Thank you, Yvonne, for your time hearing from the south and taking us through the main highlights of today's agenda for this 17th summit.
11:34Thank you, Alejandra. Always a pleasure.
11:37We were speaking to Yvonne Taylor as international analyst in the context of the 17th summit of the BRICS.
11:44And now with this special interview, we go for a first break.
11:48But first remember, you can join us on TikTok at Telesur English, where you'll find news in different formats, news updates and more.
