Congratulations to Argentina, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, and Ethiopia ! Isn't that historic ?
B.t.w., on a more useless note, i've been playing with some possible acronyms for the past hour, without success, my favorite for now is « I(ran) B(razil)E(thiopia)A(rgentina)R(ussia) E(gypt)C(hina)E(mirates)S(audi arabia)I(ndia)S(outh africa) ».
An ecesis being the successful establishment of a plant/animal in a habitat that was barren previously.
Yeah, i'm not sure that they'll be called by their acronym anymore, but who cares right ? They've made an alliance with the Middle-East, now include the two largest countries in South America, and even set a second foot in Africa with the ultra-famous Ethiopia(, one of the first christian countries, a communist history, one of the few never colonized, etc.) ! Well worth more than a single toast.
The world doesn't have to be divided, it's the west who refuses to live with such differences as socialism, islamism, or whatever survived the colonization, if this alliance enables diversity( in unity) then that's a good thing.
Honestly I hope the BRICS bank does come to fruition. China has already done a lot for the developing world and an alternative for the IMF which doesn't require implementing neoliberal policies would benefit many counties.
Argentina and Iran were pretty much a done deal, and Saudi Arabia was a maybe but i didn't expect Egypt so soon, and Ethiopia was the most positive surprise of all. This has the potential to do a ton of economic good for Ethiopia and i am really happy for them, they deserve a win after the hard times they've been having recently fighting against their US backed rebels.
They want to be like Turkey and play both sides for their own advantage. In a period of prolonged great power confrontation hedging your bets like that can be very profitable. But it's hard to pull off, it's a delicate balancing act that carries with it inherent risks and requires that you have something that is vitally important to both sides. Turkey has its strategic location, the Saudis have their oil, so both sides of the new cold war have to put up with their opportunism. But if you're unimportant and weak you will not be allowed to sit on the fence, you will be forced into one of the two camps which is what happened first to Ukraine which was not allowed to be the middle man between Russia and Europe, and now on a larger scale to all of Europe which has been forced by its imperial masters in Washington to break their lucrative economic relations with Russia, and in the future may again be forced to do the same with China. Obviously the Saudis do not want to be put in such a position of humiliating subservience that forces them to self-harm and go against their own interests.
The US-Saudi alliance is the keystone of the petrodollar, if Russia and China manage (with a little help from the US self-sabotaging by alienating most of the world with sanctions overreach and bad diplomacy that is perceived as disrespectful and bullying) to rip Saudi Arabia away from Washington, even just partly, that could snowball into the entire structure of US global financial dominance collapsing. All it takes is for the Saudis to start selling their oil in regional currencies instead of the dollar. Of course being in BRICS is not exclusive with having good ties to the US, at least on the surface, that's why it's so appealing to a lot of countries. After all, India was able to be recruited to the so-called "Quad" and be in BRICS at the same time. But it makes it much harder for the imperialists to drive wedges between its members and isolate individual countries that it decides to target.
If Saudi Arabia was that much allied with the u.s. it'd have accepted Israel and wouldn't be criticized that much, and would also play its expected role against Iran, they also made peace with Yemen, i didn't expected that. Don't forget that S.Hussein was also our ally in the past, things change. As long as it's good news for them and not bad news for the others then it's a reason to rejoice i.m.h.o.
Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Iran, are the three most important countries in the Middle-East, with a historical influence going back farther than England's influence in the European Union. The United Arab Emirates also have a lot of influence.
I just hope that they won't be sanctioned or something.
It gets a lot harder to sanction these countries if they join a trade alliance. Not impossible. They'll still need dollars for a good while yet. But it becomes more challenging and the would-be sanctioned states become more resistant to it.
Agreed. That said, anyone trying to create an alliance against / an alternative to NATO and the IMF, after decades of US destroying every opposition to its hegemony, will mostly find allies that are far from glamorous
It's not about ideology. It's about providing an alternative to the hegemon. Seeing those who are usually imperialist running dogs now beginning to choose the alternative is a win.
I think the Saudi's status as an ally of the US is increasingly contentious. Things have been less-than-friendly over the past few years. Them beginning to make peace with Iran, showing interest outside of the West and outside of the petrodollar, not so readily adhering to the US's demands following Ukraine...
It's hard to say if they just see the US as a leperous beast killing itself and all who stick by its side, or if this is just the whims of the winds, but to me I see Saudi/US relations continuing to deteriorate. Them joining BRICS will surely been seen as another crypto-intolerable slight to the Empire.
Can any comrades give us the equivalents in non-Latin alphabet? Curious to see if any other meanings float to the surface in characters, Cyrillic, or abjad.