WASHINGTON
\nThe United States is racing to improve its messaging to the developing world as the BRICS group grows, although few in Washington view an immediate threat from the Chinese-backed club.
\nThe BRICS \u2014 Brazil, Russia India, China and South Africa \u2014 agreed at a summit last week to add six more members, in what Chinese President Xi Jinping billed as a historic moment among large emerging economies contesting the Western-led order.
\nAs the BRICS leaders met in Johannesburg, President Joe Biden\u2019s administration renewed promises to step up funding for the developing world through the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.
\nBiden\u2019s national security advisor, Jake Sullivan, vowed to fight to reform the Washington-based lenders at an upcoming summit in New Delhi of the Group of 20 \u2014 boosting the roles both of the US-backed organisation and of India, a key member of both clubs.
\nThe United States has also been highlighting Russia\u2019s withdrawal from a UN-backed deal to allow grain exports from Ukraine to the developing world, where some countries have questioned the Western priority of sending billions of dollars in weapons to Kyiv.
\nPublicly, Washington played down the BRICS expansion, saying only that countries can choose their own partners.
\nSullivan, noting the wide policy differences among the countries, earlier told reporters, \u201cWe are not looking at the BRICS as evolving into some kind of geopolitical rival to the United States or anyone else.\u201d
\nBut experts said the BRICS expansion at least showed demand for a new way to address unmet needs, on the economic if not security front.
\nEmerging nations are \u201clooking for alternatives, not replacements\u201d to the US-led order, said Sarang Shidore, director of the Global South programme at the Quincy Institute, which advocates a less military-focused US foreign policy.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s a message to the United States that these gaps are hurting and our countries are not just complaining about them or carping from the sidelines, but actually taking action to try and fill these gaps,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cI think the US is starting to take it seriously,\u201d Shidore said of developing countries\u2019 concern. \u201cBut those are statements \u2014 is there money attached to it?\u201d
\nFor Washington, the most concerning addition to the BRICS is Iran, which has hailed membership as a way to break out of US-driven isolation over the clerical state\u2019s contested nuclear work and clampdown on protesters.
\nBut the new members do not see eye to eye. Also joining are three Arab countries with historically rocky ties with Iran \u2014 Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
\nConspicuously absent from the BRICS expansion was any Southeast Asian country \u2014 despite Indonesia\u2019s leadership in the Cold War-era Non-Aligned Movement \u2014 at a time that China has been increasingly assertive on maritime disputes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WASHINGTON The United States is racing to improve its messaging to the developing world as the BRICS group grows, although few in Washington view an immediate threat from the Chinese-backed club. The BRICS \u2014 Brazil, Russia India, China and South Africa \u2014 agreed at a summit last week to add six more members, in what […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":352784,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-352747","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n