This style of rhetoric around BRICS is just scaremongering.
If BRICS is on track to be a major global bloc, then so is the QUAD and I2U2.
In action, it's as detoothed as APEC because of mutual blunting by China and India.
> Lula increasingly China friendly
What tangible policy can you show for this? Not rhetoric - actual legislation.
Rhetoric doesn't matter in hyperfederalized democracies like Brazil and India.
> GDP adjusted PPP
I've brought this up a number of times before, but GDP PPP in isolation is a bad metric, along with other GDP metrics.
Fundamentally, the assumption that goods can be substituted might work for commodities, but in reality alll consumers do differentiate between products and value.
Furthermore, PPP calculations are fundamentally flawed and a LOT of behinds the scenes politicking happens as countries try to change WB and IMF's PPP metrics to show their countries in a better light [0]
Furthermore, NATO+ Members like Switzerland joined that initiative and praised it as well [0].
I lean hawkish on China (as several on HN know), but Ukraine is a bad litmus test for validating nation's sentiments about China.
The brutal honest truth is Ukraine has fought well, but they need to negotiate on terms that the international community provides, because everyone has a higher priority great power struggle to deal with. For most of the world, Ukraine is not their problem.
Even Ukrainian leadership recognizes this and are leveraging China and India (companies owned by conglomerates from both countries are the largest employers in Ukraine) to try and find a middle ground with Russia [1]
Countries line Brazil are regional powers, and they are negotiating on their terms - not in favor of one nation or the other.
Ukraine did negotiate from 2014 to 2022 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minsk_agreements, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normandy_Format). Everyone knows what it lead to. It is now clear that, unless backed by strong security guarantees like NATO membership or non-NATO allied status, these so-called “peace initiatives” would amount to national suicide for Ukraine. This is why Ukrainians reject them.
China and Brazil do not stand for peace. They are just on the other side.
The brutally honest truth is no one in the global south cares about Ukraine. They are using these peace initiatives to cement their own claims at great power status.
If BRICS is on track to be a major global bloc, then so is the QUAD and I2U2.
In action, it's as detoothed as APEC because of mutual blunting by China and India.
> Lula increasingly China friendly
What tangible policy can you show for this? Not rhetoric - actual legislation.
Rhetoric doesn't matter in hyperfederalized democracies like Brazil and India.
> GDP adjusted PPP
I've brought this up a number of times before, but GDP PPP in isolation is a bad metric, along with other GDP metrics.
Fundamentally, the assumption that goods can be substituted might work for commodities, but in reality alll consumers do differentiate between products and value.
Furthermore, PPP calculations are fundamentally flawed and a LOT of behinds the scenes politicking happens as countries try to change WB and IMF's PPP metrics to show their countries in a better light [0]
[0] - https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2024/06/06/w...