2023 has been a tumultuous year for many countries, including BRICS members. Argentina's president-elect Xavier Milei's "anti-BRICS" approach and move to "align himself with Washington" is packed with problems, according to Prof. Patrick Bond, Distinguished Professor and Director of the Centre for Social Change, University of Johannesburg.
"The problem is that won't necessarily help him [Milei] because Washington doesn't have much to offer, especially because the International Monetary Fund will be squeezing as hard as it can in Argentina, because it's made its biggest loans in recent years," Prof. Bond explains.
The economic consequences of Milei's policies have resulted in "triple digit" inflation that is "getting worse", as the "economy shrinks". These tragic outcomes have led to numerous protests across Argentina.
"It's those uprisings that we've seen in Argentina and many countries, including BRICS countries, really serve as a sort of reminder that the elites can't go ahead and do what they want, including really trying to tie himself too closely to Washington, to the IMF without resistance," the political economist says.
In January 2024, BRICS will include three African countries. Prof. Bond hopes that after the admission of Ethiopia and Egypt, other African countries, such as Nigeria, Algeria and Senegal will follow in the footsteps of BRICS.
"It's so critical that we see the African continent move more coherently because we're going to have a free trade bloc within Africa, which means the division of the continent, which was done by Western colonial powers in 1885 in Berlin, all of these 54 countries with their irrational borders, they can become less fragmented and have more economies of scale as a trade bloc," he explains.
As for 2024, Prof. Bond believes the year will be watched with "acute interest" due to the 2024 BRICS Summit in Russia in October, the G20 Summit in November, the US presidential election, as well as the Russian presidential election, all of which will have a huge impact on the development of international relations.
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