Ahead of the impending BRICS summit, South African Ambassador Anil Sooklal affirmed that de-dollarization wouldn’t be on the agenda. Conversely, Sooklal stated that the bloc is seeking to focus heavily on the promotion of local currencies within the bloc.
The annual summit is a week away, and preparations for the gathering are well underway. Moreover, the bloc is setting the agenda for the discussions that will take place, chief among which are likely to be local currency development and potential expansion criteria for incoming members of the economic alliance.
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BRICS Won’t Prioritize De-Dollarization at the Summit
The BRICS economic alliance is nearing its most important summit to date. Indeed, the collective is preparing for a massively important two-day gathering to take place in Johannesburg next week. There, the involved countries will discuss vitality and important policies that could determine the long-term trajectory of the group.
However, BRICS member South Africa has stated that de-dollarization will not be on the summit agenda. Specifically, the country’s BRICS ambassador, Anil Sooklal, stated that local currency promotion will be of the utmost importance to participating countries in a conversation with Bloomberg.
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“Trading in local currencies is firmly on the agenda,” Sooklala stated. “There is no agenda item on 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.”
The statement is rather interesting considering how forcefully BRICS members have moved away from the greenback. Yet, it brings about a very interesting distinction in the alliance’s operations. Their focus remains on the Global South and those local currencies. Subsequently, they are maneuvering away from the anti-West perception many have maintained.
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“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,” Sooklal stated as being false. “What we do seek is to advance the agenda of the Global South and to build a more inclusive, representative, just, and fair global architecture.”
Additionally, Sooklal affirmed that expansion will still remain a primary focus of the summit. He stated that there remains “a general consensus that BRICS has to expand,” at the summit. Thereafter, remarking that the bloc “worked out some rules of procedure and criteria.”