Lula: BRICS Is Something New in the World You Need To Know About
July 10—In his final press conference at the conclusion of the BRICS Summit July 6, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva described to reporters, several times, what the BRICS is all about: a “totally new” process of cooperation between nations to create a shared future, based on respect for the sovereignty, equality and development of each and all of their members. If Europeans and Americans would listen to what President Lula said, they might begin to realize how much they could gain, if their nations would stop barking orders at everybody else, and instead join this great BRICS work in progress.
“The world has changed. We don’t want an emperor. We are sovereign nations,” President Lula replied, when a reporter informed him of President Donald Trump’s threat to impose another 10% tariff on any nation “aligning” with the BRICS. “This is a set of countries that wants to find another way of organizing the world from an economic standpoint.” The basic principle is: “Each country is the owner of its own nose,” he said, using a familiar Brazilian saying.
Lula elaborated the principle guiding the BRICS process most simply in response to the last question of the press conference: no pre-set recipes or rules, just basic principles. As he put it:
“The BRICS is like a child that is growing up. We are learning and trying not to repeat the mistakes of the past of others. We are trying to do something new! …
“The BRICS is something new that came up in a world where geopolitics was determined by a half-dozen countries that were the rich countries. To see how absurd this is, look at the IMF,” he said. Although the BRICS produces one-half of the GDP in the world, they only have 18% of the votes under the IMF system! “The truth of the matter is that the rich countries took over all the multilateral institutions and we were pretty much sidelined. So what we want is to build a BRICS where the relationship is a fair one; where we all participate in the decision-making process, in the most democratic way.”
“The only thing new that has come up in the world in the last years” was created by the BRICS. “It didn’t come from the top-down; it came from the bottom-up. And we are lucky to have important countries on board, like China, India, Indonesia, South Africa, Brazil, and other countries are joining and coming in. We do not have closed doors to those who want to come in. If they want to join, we’ll make an assessment, and when we assess, we’ll make an invitation, and that is how it works.”