Tag: Brazil

BRICS Summit Attracts Global Interest Not Seen in Years

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The leaders from the five-member group of nations known as BRICS — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — are beginning a three-day summit in Johannesburg on Tuesday, where they are discussing expanding the club that harbors ambitions of becoming a geopolitical alternative to Western-led forums like the Group of 7. The latest gathering of leaders has garnered a level of international interest rarely seen since the group was first formed 14 years ago. A trade war between Beijing and Washington and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have reinvigorated the…

Brics group looks to expand at summit despite divisions among key members

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Leaders from developing countries representing almost half the world’s population including China and Russia are to meet in South Africa for a key summit aimed at reinforcing their alliance as a counterweight to the west. The Brics grouping summit in Johannesburg, which starts on Tuesday, will be hosted by the South African president, Cyril Ramaphosa, and brings together the prime minister of India, Narendra Modi, as well the presidents of China, Xi Jinping, and Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Dozens of leaders of other countries in Africa, Asia and…

BRICS Debates Adding New Members

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The group of nations known as BRICS — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — represents 40 percent of the world’s population and a quarter of the world’s economy. Now it is considering expanding, in a push to be seen as a credible counterweight to Western-led forums like the G7 group of advanced nations. But the challenge for the club is that it is as divergent as it is large, and hindered by sometimes conflicting interests and internal rivalries. It comprises the world’s largest authoritarian state (China) and its…

Vetoes in U.N. Security Council Imperil Cross-Border Humanitarian Aid to Syria

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The United Nations Security Council on Tuesday failed to adopt two rival resolutions to extend cross-border aid deliveries into northern Syria from Turkey, effectively cutting off a vital lifeline to about 4.1 million people in opposition-held territories. Russia vetoed a bid put forth by Brazil and Switzerland to extend one resolution for nine months, a compromise from an initial 12-month extension called for by the United Nations and international aid agencies. A second resolution put forth by Russia for a six-month extension was vetoed by Britain, France and the United…

Zelenskiy uses G7 summit to reach beyond the west for support

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Normally G7 summits are about battling for the free world comma by comma, as diplomats parse lengthy communiques of ephemeral significance long into the night. Words, after all, constitute much of a diplomat’s work. At the Hiroshima G7 some of the communiques emerging from the summit do matter, notably the toolbox on de-risking trade with China, but the true significance of the summit lay in Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s scene-stealing visit courtesy of a ride in Emmanuel Macron’s French aircraft. It was the culmination of a Ukrainian realisation that for months they…

Lavrov’s Brazil visit highlights Lula’s neutral foreign policy despite US dismay

Chin@Strategy

Russia’s minister of foreign affairs, Sergei Lavrov, is due to arrive in Brasília on Monday for talks with his Brazilian counterpart, Mauro Vieira, in the latest of a series of bilateral encounters likely to ruffle the US. Lavrov arrives just as Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, returns from a state visit to China, and both missions are part of a diplomatic reset Lula has pursued since returning to power this year, as he strives to recover Brazil’s international reputation after his predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro, dismantled Brazil’s established tradition…

The world in 2023: what our writers say you should watch out for

Chin@Strategy

A near-inevitable global recession sparked by a lengthening war in Europe’s frozen east; an energy crisis coupled with soaring inflation; Covid-19 finally running rampant in China – predictions for 2023 are grim. Still, there are reasons to be hopeful. That same energy crisis has spurred an unprecedented demand for renewables, which are expected to boom, while in Brazil, a new president has sworn to protect the Amazon. Repressive regimes, meanwhile, will be nervously looking at Iran, where hardline clerics are locked in a struggle with a formidable pro-democracy uprising that…

Your Monday Briefing: Indonesia’s Stadium Tragedy

Chin@Strategy

An Indonesian stadium tragedy At least 125 people died when soccer fans rushed the field after a professional soccer match in Malang, Indonesia, on Saturday. Many were trampled. The police fired tear gas into the tightly packed crowds, leading to a stampede. Survivors said that the gas was fired indiscriminately into the stands, forcing the overcapacity crowd to rush for the exits. Many are angry at the police response, which observers said had made the situation worse. “If there wasn’t any tear gas shot into the stands, there would have…

Your Monday Briefing: Ukraine Agrees to Talks

Chin@Strategy

Good morning. We’re covering diplomacy and posturing in Ukraine, research into the pandemic’s origins and another North Korean missile test. Ukraine agrees to Russian talks President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine agreed to talks with Russia “without preconditions” on the Belarusian border. Just before the announcement, President Vladimir Putin issued a new threat to the West, telling the Russian military to put its nuclear forces on alert. Western powers are uniting around Ukraine. The E.U. said it would close its airspace to Russian planes and finance the donation of weapons. Turkish…

Covid global report: Omicron alert in southern Chinese city bordering Macau

Chin@Strategy

The southern Chinese city of Zhuhai has suspended public bus routes after announcing it had detected at least seven cases of the highly transmissible Omicron coronavirus variant there and warning residents not to leave the city. The coastal city, which borders the gambling hub Macau, said late on Friday that Omicron had been detected in one mildly ill and six asymptomatic patients, after mass testing due to a case in a neighbouring city. China is battling a spate of coronavirus outbreaks, including several from the Omicron variant, as it steps…