On April 23, the Valdai Discussion Club held an online presentation of its most recent report, titled “BRICS and the Rivalry Pandemic.”
In the year of Russia’s BRICS Presidency, the Valdai Club was the first to analyse the potential for cooperation within the group during and after the coronavirus pandemic.
The changing balance of power, global economic and pandemic crisis, the beginning of a full-fledged bipolar confrontation between China and the United States render the fate of international organizations and associations rather uncertain. All of them were created in a period of relative stability and their members hoped that in the future they would be able to advance their interests in the relatively comfortable conditions of the presumable weakening of the US leadership. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov recently said that after the end of the coronavirus pandemic, much has to be rethought in terms of activities of multilateral structures, including the BRICS group.
The authors of the report are confident that now it is important for BRICS to fill the void of governance in the world which was widely manifested during the crisis.
Since the beginning of the pandemic crisis, the BRICS countries have not allowed a single hostile action against one another. However, it is obvious to experts that, like most others, BRICS is a “peacetime organization”, not prepared for a joint solution to acute transnational issues. At the same time, there is potential for enhancing cooperation in combating global threats, both within the framework of five nations and in the BRICS+ format.
What does Russia need to realise its chairmanship priorities in the rapidly changing conditions, how will they affect the format of the upcoming summit? What actions is BRICS taking in the context of the economic crisis and pandemic? Is it possible for BRICS to increase funding for the World Health Organization amid US actions against the organization? What problems is the association currently facing? What are the possible ways for BRICS to move forward? The authors of the report and other participants in the discussion will address these and other issues.
Speakers:
Pavel Knyazev, Deputy Director of the Department of Foreign Policy Planning of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs;
Viktoria Panova, Managing Director of the National Committee for BRICS Research, Academic Supervisor of the BRICS Russia Organizing Committee Expert Council, Vice-President for International Relations at the Far Eastern Federal University, Russia’s Sherpa in W20;
Dmitry Suslov, Deputy Director and Research Fellow, Centre for Comprehensive European and International Studies, Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs, HSE;
Cui Zheng, Deputy Director of Research Center for the Economies and Politics of Transitional Countries at Liaoning University;
Moderator:
Working languages: Russian, English.