BRICS Not Looking to Take On NATO

And this despite all of the fear-mongering coming from among others Zoltan Pozsar, Alisdair Macleod, Pepe Escobar, Jim Rickards and John Rubino.

The guy who’s GOTTEN IT RIGHT has been Michael Every who’s argued for months that WARP-SPEED DEDOLLARIZATION is as impossible as INSTANT DECARBONIZATION

Via The Automatic Earth blog:

“The desire to create a space NOT controlled by US/EU/NATO is just too great. That said, the tentative ‘bloc’ has plenty of issues to solve.“

From multipolar enthuiast and polticial commentator, Andre Korybko:

“’Alt-Media Was In Shock After The BRICS Bank Confirmed That It Complies With Western Sanctions‘ last month, and now the Alt-Media Community (AMC) just got hit with two more truth bombs after other leading officials confirmed that it doesn’t want to de-dollarize and isn’t anti-Western. South African Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana told Reuters earlier this month in an interview that the group’s focus is on expanding the use of national currencies rather than de-dollarization.

“That outlet also quoted New Development Bank (NDB, popularly referred to as the BRICS Bank) Chief Financial Officer Leslie Maasdorp in the same article, who told them that ‘The bank’s operating currency is dollars for a very specific reason, U.S. dollars are where the largest pools of liquidity are…You cannot step outside of the dollar universe and operate in a parallel universe.’ The official confirmation that BRICS doesn’t want to de-dollarize directly led to the next clarification about it not being anti-Western.

“South African Ambassador to BRICS Anil Sooklal corrected false perceptions about the organization’s global role in an interview with Bloomberg several days back where he told them that ‘There’s an unfortunate narrative being developed that BRICS is anti-West, that BRICS was created as competition to the G7 or the Global North, and that is incorrect. What we do seek is to advance the agenda of the Global South and to build a more inclusive, representative, just, fair global architecture.‘

“In connection with this purpose, he also confirmed what Godongwana and Maasdorp said earlier in the month about how BRICS has no desire to de-dollarize. In Sooklal’s words, “Trading in local currencies is firmly on the agenda (but) There is no agenda item of de-dollarization on the BRICS agenda. BRICS is not calling for de-dollarization. The dollar will continue to be a major global currency — that’s a reality.” These revelations about BRICS might understandably overwhelm the average member of the AMC.”

Some additional Korybko comments:

• BRICS can still “advance the agenda of the Global South and to build a more inclusive, representative, just, fair global architecture” exactly as Sooklal clarified is its intent in spite of the ‘politically inconvenient’ facts that were just shared, but it’ll be at a gradual pace, not an accelerated one.
• They didn’t want their supporters’ unrealistic expectations leading to deep disappointment that in turn makes them susceptible to hostile suggestions, nor did they want to spook the West into overreacting either.
• After debunking the disinformation that’s been spewed about their organization by the AMC and MSM alike, each in advance of polar opposite agendas but still suspiciously relying on practically identical narratives, BRICS officials are now more confident that these worst-case scenarios can be averted.
• They believe that the West must engage with the Global South on a more equal level, which necessitates scaling back some of its most blatantly exploitative practices in order to not lose more hearts and minds to the Sino–Russo Entente. 
• China wants to speed up the yuan’s internationalization and integrate BRICS into the Belt & Road Initiative (BRI), while India wants to prioritize national currencies and keep BRICS officially separate from BRI.
• Both agree that changes to the global financial system must be gradual, however, in order to avoid provoking a mutually detrimental overreaction from the West with whom all of them apart from Russia are in relationships of complex interdependence.

WHILE THE WORLD IS MOVING RAPIDLY AND UNCOMFORTABLY IN WAYS FEW ANTICIPATED, RETOOLING ITS FINANCIAL STRUCTURE WILL TAKE YEARS, GIVEN HOW FRAGILE AND OVEREXTENDED IT’S BECOME.

BESIDES, AS IMPORTANT AS ECONOMICS ARE, NO SANE EMERGING COUNTRY IS LOOKING TO EMULATE THE SINO-RUSSIAN SOCIO-POLITICAL ORDER. IT’S NOT HOW THEY WISH TO EXIST.