Agence France-Presse
01/11/2025
By Carissa Mary Lestari Bongso
In an intense session of the BRICS+ council, delegates from the South all gathered to discuss the decline of global trade due to Westerners and a dream, independence from Western domination. What seemed like to be just a debate quickly turned into a call of change in a matter of seconds as Russia takes charge and invites the delegatses to join them in directly opposing the West.
Six of the ten nations decide to join in and advocate for the solution, discussing for suitable future methods on how to build their own economic resillience. On the other hand, Indonesia, South Africa, Iran, and Brazil are unable to join the cause and suggest more friendly methods to oppose the United States as they have laws that tie them together. While South Africa brings up the fact that many countries are still benefiting from continuing trades with the United States as well as being too underdeveloped to oppose US dollars.
India then emphasized the importance of strengtheningglobal trades and immediately called for an increase in local exchange rates to reduce their dependence on the US dollar. Meanwhile Indonesia voiced their concerns on directly opposing the US when they have military bases and trade ties all over the nation.
Iran, Russia, and China, nations heavily affected by the sanctions, shared how depending on the United State’s success brought the global economy down and led to severe inflation and instability despite holding vast oil reserves. The nations then shared how United States sanctioned their resources but still neglected their voices. They all have claimed that the if the United States lifted the sanctions, they would be able to earn more, thus being better off without them.
In the other side of the council, Ethiopia and South Africa brought up the inequality in voting power. “Africa only holds a very tiny fraction of the globe’s voting power while the United States carries a large 7%, yet countries like India, Indonesia, China and Russia contains most of the world’s population and potential.”
By the end of their debates, it was very clear that a change had to be made and all of BRICS+ members shared one goal: to build their economic resilience and be independent to reshape the world into a fairer place.