BRIC foreign ministers agree on further cooperation

BRIC foreign ministers agree on further cooperation

16.05.2008, 12.23

YEKATERINBURG, May 16 (Itar-Tass) - The foreign ministers of Russia, Brazil, India and China have agreed on further development of cooperation and the broadening of the agenda in this format, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said after a meeting with his Brazilian, Indian and Chinese counterparts in Yekaterinburg on Friday.

He said the next meeting in the BRIC format, as the informal association of the four states has been named, would be held on the sidelines of the 63rd session of the UN General Assembly in New York, and the “second independent meeting” in India in 2009.

The sides also agreed to prepare a meeting of finance and economics ministers of their countries.

Conference of universities of St. Petersburg, Rio de Janeiro, Mumbai and Qingdao be held in St. Petersburg at the end of May.

A feature to the meeting in Yekaterinburg, which has been the third, was that BRIC ministers consultations for the third time “independently, without any tie to any international forums,” Lavrov said.

He stressed that Russia attaches much importance to cooperation in this format that is prompted by weight of these countries in the world politics and economy.

Over half of the population of the globe lives in these four countries, Lavrov said.

He said the consultations in Yekaterinburg centered on the rule of law in international relations, counteraction to challenges to global security, as well as issues in the world economy.

“All sides are interested in broadening the agenda of our meetings,” Lavrov said.

The common approach of Russia, Brazil, India and China is reflected in a joint communique adopted at the meeting in Yekaterinburg, he said.

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Russia to head anti-western alliance
16.05.2008 Source: Pravda.Ru URL: http://english.pravda.ru/world/europe/105240-russia_head_anti-western_allian-0

Russia became a center of the new anti-western alliance called BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, and China). This was caused by the recent recognition of Kosovo’s independence by the West.

Hard times for the EU concerning Kosovo question are just going to start, although many thought that after Pristina was recognized by the west, the rest countries are to do the same. Nothing of the kind.

There suddenly emerged an almost forgotten union called BRIC - informal alliance of the countries that stand for Kosovo’s status to be overviewed. Moscow was backed up especially by Beijing and Delhi. They proposed the dialogue on the status of former Serbian region to be started again. The meeting of BRIC members took place in Russia, which hosted foreign ministers from Brazil, China and India.

But what’s the purpose of these conversations? We can’t turn back time and Kosovo’s Albanians will never voluntarily go back under Serbia’s wing, the country that was claimed to have used genocide against Kosovo residents. Kosovo’s battle for integrity was lost not on February 17, 2008, but a long time before – in 1999, when Serbia couldn’t oppose NATO’s aggression. Besides, Kosovo’s independence has already been recognized by about 40 countries, among which are such superpowers as Britain and the USA, Germany and France. They are not going to change their choice. Moreover, it would sound ridiculous to deny Kosovo’s independence, which was the successful result of NATO campaign in 1999. Kosovo, with its vast colored metals resources, is today, in fact, one of America’s biggest bases - it hosts about 16 thousand US soldiers.

However, the BRIC alliance is not that stupid not to understand evident things. Alexander Rar, a famous European political analyst, says that BRIC tries to found an alliance that would oppose Western politics. ‘Thus, it is possible that Dmitry Medvedev may start his rule with a new anti-western attack. In fact, it’s a new attempt to reflect the world political situation. But it’s unlikely that in the next couple of years BRIC is to become a strong military and political alliance like NATO. Probably it’s going to be a union of countries with common interests.

But why was Russia backed up by exactly these countries? The thing is, each of BRIC members has its own ‘Kosovo problems’. The West traditionally sympathizes with North Caucasus terrorists. But it’s not just about Russia. The USA is trying to make an uprising start in southern and south-western ‘Native American’ territories of Brazil. Then, there are a lot of similar problems in India – with the regions of Nagaland, Kashmir, and Sikh. China has faced tough separatist actions in Tibet that were the direct result of the uprising in Kosovo. All these conflicts are spark by the West. Funny enough, its participants are called ‘freedom fighters’ whereas the citizens of Abkhazia and North Ossetia that haven’t had anything in common with pro-Western Georgia for a long time, are called separatists.

So Europe and the USA again demonstrate ‘double standards’ and use Kosovo’s precedent against the countries that are not considered to be very friendly with the Western world. The reason is simple: they try to weaken their growing rivals with internal conflicts. Note that in 2003 the experts of Goldman Sachs investment bank called Brazil, India, China and Russia the most perspective countries in economy and stated that by 2030 they will have become at least superpowers on their continents. This process, however, can be stopped by enkindling interfaith and international conflicts with the foreign help. So, in this situation the ‘defensive tactics’ of BRIC will be not enough. BRIC needs to beat the ‘enemy’ with its own weapon, helping our ‘freedom fighters’ in the west, and thus giving the West what they produced back with the boomerang. What goes around, comes around, they say…

Translated by Lena Ksndinova