🇧🇷🇷🇺🇮🇳🇨🇳🇿🇦 One of the ways to picture the uniqueness of BRICS geography is the sheer distance that separates its members.

If the distance were to be measured on the basis of the separation between the respective capitals, then the greatest distance among the two BRICS economies would be between Brazil and China — nearly 17000 km. The distance between Russia and Brazil is nearly 11700 km. These distances are several times higher than the longest separations of capitals within the EU (Warsaw-Lisbon separation is 2760 km) and still notably greater than the most extreme spatial separations in the developed world (London-Canberra is 10545 km and the New York — Canberra route is just over 10000 km).

But perhaps the most important common feature among the BRICS economies is that they serve as crucial regional hubs for their continental neighbors, particularly developing landlocked economies. Indeed, each BRICS economy neighbors several landlocked developing economies — in many cases these are some of the largest landlocked economies in the world.

The enormous intra-continental distances for BRICS can become an asset and an opportunity-set for advancing South-South cooperation through connectivity projects, writes Yaroslav Lissovolik, Programme Director of the Valdai Discussion Club.

#Valdai_WorldEconomy #BRICS

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🚏🗺 The unipolar order has already collapsed as evident by the weaponization of economic dependencies and declining trust in the freedom of navigation.

Liberal international economic systems with reliable transportation corridors tend to form under economic hegemons with control over the seas.

There is self-interest in providing public goods in the form of trust in open transportation corridors, as the “benign hegemon” can organise the international economic system under its administration. However, declining hegemons have incentives to limit or condition the freedom of navigation to prevent the rise of rivals, which causes a return to mercantilist traditions. 

As the unipolar order has come to an end, Eurasian integration is facilitating a multipolar world in which trust can be restored in new transportation corridors. 

Eurasian transportation networks are not only creating more cost and time efficient transportation corridors, they are also reviving reliable connectivity in a multipolar format.

Gradually, the Eurasian land powers are displacing the competitive advantage of the oceanic powers, writes Valdai Club expert Glenn Diesen @glenndiesen.

#Valdai_WorldEconomy #Eurasia #multipolarity

@valdai_club

🌐 The assertion that global problems cannot be solved by any one state alone, even the most powerful state, seems to have become axiomatic.

We have repeatedly heard this statement from the lips of representatives of those same Western countries. It is precisely these goals that the numerous multilateral institutions and mechanisms, should have served, both old ones and new ones. In theory, at least.

But what do we see in practice? If you look at the facts, at least the Western co-founders saw in these institutions just tools for exercising control and maintaining their own dominance on the world stage in all areas - from military-political and technological to economic and ideological superiority. For all appearances, the G20 was given an identical role by the "older" countries of the G7.

This year, the G20 chair is Indonesia. Probably, first of all, only thanks to the will and firmness of Jakarta, the G20 still manages to avoid being written off. 

Indonesia, as chairman, has demonstrated exceptional maturity, vision, and scale as a true global power by resisting unprecedented pressure from the West to impose a rule-based order that benefits only them. 

Regardless of the outcome of the G20 summit itself, it will be possible to mark the Indonesian presidency as a success. After all, the current crisis has allowed Indonesia to prove itself as a global power. It is precisely the crisis and the hegemonic aspirations of the West that allow the rest of the G20 members to look for and eventually find those bold and non-standard solutions that will lead to a new, more just and equal world, writes Viktoria Panova, Vice-Rector of the National Research University Higher School of Economics, Sherpa of Russia in the Women's Twenty.

https://valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/g20-does-multilateralism-have-a-chance/

#Valdai_WorldEconomy #G20 #Indonesia

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🇷🇺🌍 Russia has chosen the Politics First course, in which economic preferences are a natural consequence of successful political cooperation.

This approach is likely to be efficient, since the reverse — first the economy, then everything else — has proven to be unsteady, writes Kirill Babaev, Acting Director of the Institute of China and Modern Asia at the Russian Academy of Sciences.

https://valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/prospects-for-expanding-russia-s-econom/

#Valdai_WorldEconomy #Africa

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🌐 The G20 summit in Indonesia will need to keep its focus on the key imperatives and exigencies of today’s world economy, most notably the rising risks of a global recession. 

Indeed, there do appear to be crucial items on the economic agenda that are awaiting decisions from the largest economies of the globe during the period of unprecedented risks and volatility in the markets. Among the possible venues for discussion are the need to introduce greater inclusivity into the G20 forum itself, with due representation accorded to developing economies.

With the IMF warning about the rising risks of recession perhaps the most important economic issue to discuss at the G20 summit will be the coordination of an anti-crisis response across the global economy.

The developing countries in the coming years could make a lasting and crucial contribution to making the G20 a more effective and inclusive global anti-crisis mechanism, writes Valdai Club Programme Director Yaroslav Lissovolik.

https://valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/the-g20-summit-and-beyond/

#Valdai_WorldEconomy #G20

@valdai_club

🪙 Initially, the proposal to create a new reserve currency based on a basket of currencies of BRICS countries was formulated by the Valdai Club back in 2018.

The idea was to create an SDR-type currency basket composed of BRICS countries’ national currencies as well as potentially some of the other currencies of BRICS+ circle economies.

The new BRICS reserve currency can act in concert with the stronger role performed by BRICS national currencies to take on a greater share of the total pie of currency transactions in the world economy, writes Valdai Club Programme Director Yaroslav Lissovolik.

https://valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/a-brics-reserve-currency-exploring-the-pathways/

#valdai_programme #Valdai_WorldEconomy #BRICS

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🏦 According to the IMF, the world economy is increasingly vulnerable to the risks of an outright recession, with all the main centres of the global markets experiencing notable difficulties.

🇺🇸 In the case of the US, this is the high inflation and the Fed rate hikes that are adversely affecting economic activity.

🇪🇺 In Europe, apart from concerns over high inflation, there is the lingering threat of energy shortages.

🇨🇳 In China, economic activity has fallen notably compared to the preceding year, which is in part due to the persistence of the adversities associated with the Covid pandemic.

The increasing frequency of recessions in the global economy raises questions about the adequacy of the current framework of global governance in the economic sphere. 

The Covid pandemic, energy shortages, geopolitical vulnerabilities – all of these global issues have not been adequately addressed by the international community in the past several years.

This brings us yet again to the need for changes in global governance – the increasing intensity and frequency of global recessions puts into doubt the adequacy of the existing global framework, writes Valdai Club Programme Director Yaroslav Lissovolik.

https://valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/recession-ahead-what-are-the-remedies/

#Valdai_WorldEconomy #recession

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🏰🚫 The European Union seems irretrievably engaged in a showdown with Russia.

After having rolled out nine successive waves of sanctions since February 22, 2022, without counting the sanctions already implemented since 2014, it is preparing for a tenth wave.

The sanctions did cause a drop in trade between Russia and the EU. This drop was estimated, in October 2022 compared to October 2021, at −4.5 billion USD. Moreover, it could be seen that the sanctions had above all led to a reorientation of Russian foreign trade, to the benefit of China and India, but also (and this is less well known) Turkey, Belarus and Kazakhstan.

This is an important point, when you remember that the EU was Russia’s main trading partner, both for imports and for exports. The consequences of Russia’s economic pivot to Asia will be far-reaching.

While the sanctions imposed by the European Union have had little impact on Russia, they have had an obvious impact on the EU itself, writes Valdai Club expert Jacques Sapir. What are the real consequences? Does this harsh policy, which can even be described as aggressive, against Russia have a chance of producing effects?

https://valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/will-eu-sanctions-produce-a-winner-and-a-loser/

#Valdai_WorldEconomy #EU #sanctions

@valdai_club

🗺 The sanctions against Russia have altered the processes of globalisation and thereby even changed the world order.

The consequence of unprecedented sanctions is that Russia has largely been severed economically from Europe, while the US has restored hegemonic control over its NATO allies.

Although the wider world outside NATO has moved in the opposite direction – US adversaries have united, and neutral/non-aligned states are also reducing reliance on the US to adopt multipolarity.

Isolating Russia to destroy its economy, financial system, and currency failed as the world is no longer Western-centric. Economic sanctions united US adversaries such as Russia, China and Iran, while non-aligned states and partners such as India, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia have diversified their economic connectivity to reduce dependence on the West, writes Valdai Club expert Glenn Diesen @glenndiesen.

https://valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/globalisation-under-a-eurasian-westphalian-world/

#Valdai_WorldEconomy #WorldOrder #multipolarity

@valdai_club