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DECEMBER 2024

Arab Countries Leave Western Axis And Invite Brazil, Russia And India To Economic Forum

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Arab Countries Leave Western Axis And Invite Brazil, Russia And India To Economic Forum

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Written by Ahmed Adel, Cairo-based geopolitics and political economy researcher

Brazil, Russia and India participated on September 9 in the 161st ministerial Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) meeting in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. This occasion marked an increasing protagonism of BRICS and the cooperation of its members on the world stage.

The Brazilian Foreign Minister, Mauro Vieira, went to the meeting and met not only with his counterparts from the Arab world at the forum and in bilateral meetings but also with the foreign ministers of Russia, Sergey Lavrov, and India, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar. GCC Secretary-General Jasem Albudaiwi stressed that joint ministerial meetings aimed to strengthen strategic relations with countries and organisations.

Albudaiwi underlined that the meeting is “a continuation of the considerable efforts made by both sides to strengthen friendly relations that fulfil their aspirations, particularly given that this dialogue serves as a permanent platform for discussion at the ministerial level, as it facilitates the exchange of views on key issues of mutual concern, including threats to regional and global security, as well as exploring ways to enhance cooperation in various fields to serve common interests.”

The GCC, created in 1981, consists of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Oman. It aims to promote regional integration between countries in politics, infrastructure, legislation, energy, defence, science, and the economy. The GCC does not often invite non-member states to its meetings. Even rarer is the invitation extended to geographically distant nations, as is the case with the three visitors to this meeting: Brazil, Russia, and India.

According to Brazilian data, the Gulf Cooperation Council countries are important trading partners for Brazil. The South American country’s trade balance exceeded $16 billion last year, with $9.3 billion in exports and $6.7 billion in imports. Collectively, GCC member countries are the fifth largest market for Brazilian exports. Within this group, Saudi Arabia naturally stands out because it has the largest territory and the largest population.

To understand the dynamics, Saudi Arabia is to the Persian Gulf what Brazil is to Mercosur. In this way, Brazil’s presence at the 161st GCC ministerial meeting reinforces the country’s economic ties with the House of Saud and makes it clear to the other Arab countries of the Persian Gulf that Brazil wants to strengthen relations with every country in the region.

Brazil is keeping an eye on investments from sovereign wealth funds in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Kuwait, which realise that the end of the fossil fuel era is approaching. These countries know that the resource on which all their wealth is based is finite, and, therefore, they need to guarantee the survival of the State through investments in various places around the world. Today, Brazil has this privileged place because it is one of the guarantors of the Persian Gulf’s food security.

The investments aim to diversify the economies of these countries and generate employment for citizens since population growth has made it impossible to employ everyone in the state machinery.

Today, they invest in the development of national industry and need markets to export to, and Latin America’s biggest country will undoubtedly be one of those markets. If Brazil wants to establish a balanced relationship with the member countries of the GCC, it will have to find a way to address the trade deficit on the GCC side. In other words, Brazil will have to buy more.

Aside from the economic sector, Brazil’s rapprochement with the region is quite significant in the political sphere since Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were invited to join BRICS, a group of emerging countries that lead the struggle for multilateralism.

In addition to Brazil, two other founding members of BRICS, Russia and India, were present at this meeting, revealing the South-South dialogue nature of the event and demonstrating without a doubt the increase in the protagonism of these countries through BRICS, which has achieved great strength. It also shows a diversification of the Persian Gulf countries in an attempt to escape from this dynamic of very strong links and overreliance on the Washington-Brussels axis.

The Global South can be seen as a 21st-century version of the non-aligned movement that emerged during the Cold War. In this sense, the Middle East has this clear perception of presenting an independent foreign policy that prioritises the new pole of power that is forming. For this reason, the GCC has unapologetically continued to trade with Russia despite Western sanctions whilst recognising that Brazil is Latin America’s most important country, as well as India, which holds the same status as Brazil except in South Asia.

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K. Lewis

interestingly, gulf sunni states are moving into the bric’s sphere more and more each day (which are all blows to the petrodollar itself). it’s hard to keep up with all of the developments but just a few days ago: the uae formally dropped the f35 deal which is all consistent with the fallout of the ukraine-russia conflict, showcasing inadequacy, and unfavorable cost/performance propositions of american military hardware.

Last edited 2 months ago by K. Lewis
RL_Fedorov

“western arms have failed to live up to their reputation”. deputy defense minister aleksandr fomin has said

Anonymous

oh and you think he’s spilling the beans in public like a whistle blower i’d bet

bert33

how soon can they stop using our money make them build their own planes

Anonymous

wake up the house of saud diversified its portfolios away from oil decades ago. everyone knows oils as common as. it’s all just a con job

Vegard

i hope turkey can convince the sunnis to make the anti-israel coalition so that they can blow israel back to pre 1948 borders. that is, no israel. let them make a new balfour declaration in britain instead …

Anonymous

you mob of fake named frauds imo are totally clueless imo both uneducated and completely ignorant they love types like you so easily deceived

bert33

good maybe it will work and hey will solve their problems

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Anonymous

don’t think for one foolish minute that you’ll get anything except block chain crypto and un ruling the show from them its just divide the world from within to conquer from without and no they aren’t martians. they’re just a tiny elite minority who live in different circles

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hasbarats

the stinky anglo jewish circus will be taken down. all global civilizations understand this

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Ghost Man / Raptar Driver

this is excellent, the arabs are finally waking up. together they are a mighty nation. the anglo/french divide & conquer is coming to an end..

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Last edited 2 months ago by Ghost Man / Raptar Driver
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