BRICS Plus hailed as key to prosperity

Rebalancing seen as helping to give developing countries a louder voice

The BRICS Plus framework would help contribute in reinforcing multilateralism, respect for international law and peaceful settlement of disputes, the Argentine embassy in South Africa says.

BRICS and BRICS Plus would help address common challenges and facilitate "dialogue based on shared interests", the embassy told China Daily.

"BRICS Plus offers a flexible international cooperation scheme between the BRICS and other emerging developing countries and allows a country like Argentina to move freely based on the principles that guide its foreign policy, namely: inclusive multilateralism, attachment to international law, peaceful settlement of disputes, special and differential treatment for developing countries, the search for a global balance with development and a greater participation of our countries."

The embassy said what BRICS stands for resonates with Argentina's foreign policy. BRICS Plus would help promote and balance redistribution of forces in the multilateral system in favor of developing countries, it said.

Argentina would be a useful member of BRICS Plus with its active membership of "different regional and interregional integration and coordination spaces".

Argentina is a member of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, G20, Organization of American States, the Southern Common Market, the G77 and the Alliance for Multilateralism. Argentina would be better placed to bring consensus to the world characterized by geopolitical tensions, the embassy said.

"Participation in BRICS Plus will make it possible to reinforce the role of our country as an actor that dialogues and cooperates with all the main powers, both from the developed and emerging worlds, and which has the possibility of contributing in all cases to promoting visions closer to the realities and needs of Latin America and the Caribbean," the Argentine embassy in South Africa said.

"We are fully convinced that only actions agreed upon by all the actors of the international community will allow us to return to a time of peaceful coexistence and will give greater stability to the economic cycle and will help us."

The embassy said Argentina would help to tackle energy and food challenges as a global food producer with one of the largest shale gas reserves. Advocating for greater liberalization of agricultural trade within the framework of BRICS and BRICS Plus would promote efficient use of natural resources.

Fulufhelo Netswera, a professor in management sciences at Durban University of Technology in South Africa, said BRICS Plus would add a voice to the growing call for the reformation of global multilateral institutions. All countries "deemed developing or third world" and that do not have veto powers or any influence in the UN Security Council are potential members of the BRICS family, Netswera said.

"The continuous expansion of BRICS membership balances global multilateral hegemonic powers, at both economic and political levels. BRICS Plus should continue lobbying for a just and stable world where all nations have a voice."

The Bretton Woods system was meant to guarantee world peace and stability but had withered, Netswera said, and "there is much stronger and dictatorial Western hegemony which is led by the US". BRICS Plus should join in lobbying for the UN Security Council, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to be reformed, he said.

"In the absence of much-needed reforms, BRICS Plus should find an alternative mechanism that guarantees the economic and political security and stability of the developing world."

The writer is a freelance writer for China Daily.