Alongside them, the United Arab Emirates, Argentina, Egypt, and Ethiopia will also join the bloc, which currently consists of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.

The announcement took place at a BRICS summit in Johannesburg, where President Ramaphosa, the current chair of the bloc, disclosed the decision. The expansion had been under talks for over a year and was agreed upon during the summit after two days of discussions.

This marks the second time that BRICS has opted to expand its membership. Initially formed in 2009 with Brazil, Russia, India, and China, South Africa was incorporated in 2010. Presently, the BRICS bloc represents around 40% of the global population and contributes more than a quarter of the world’s GDP.

Leaders from five of the current member countries were present during the summit’s announcement: Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chinese President Xi Jinping, and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.

However, Russian President Vladimir Putin was absent due to an International Criminal Court arrest warrant issued against him in March related to the abduction of children from Ukraine. He participated virtually, while Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov represented the nation at the announcement in Johannesburg.

Chinese leader Xi emphasized the significance of this expansion, stating, “This membership expansion is historic. It shows the determination of BRICS countries for unity and development.”

The United Arab Emirates’ leader, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, expressed his welcome to the inclusion of his nation in BRICS through an online message on X (formerly known as Twitter). He conveyed hopes for continued cooperation for the prosperity and well-being of all nations and people across the globe.

The inclusion of Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates in the same economic and political organization would have seemed unlikely in recent years due to escalating tensions resulting from the 2015 collapse of Tehran’s nuclear deal and a series of attributed attacks.

Nevertheless, diplomatic reengagement has emerged, between the UAE and Iran, following the coronavirus pandemic and incidents involving Iranian-backed Houthi rebels. In March, Saudi Arabia and Iran declared a separate détente mediated by China.

Despite Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and China have all maintained relationships with Russia. This development has raised concerns in Washington, which has historically provided security guarantees to these major oil-producing nations. China has also pursued closer ties with all three countries, particularly Iran, with whom it has engaged in oil imports post the nuclear deal’s breakdown.

The post BRICS to expand economic bloc with 6 countries first appeared on The Postcolonial.

In early January 2022, inhabitants of the Zhanaozen region in the southeastern part of Kazakhstan started protesting against the sharp rise in fuel prices. As the government removed the price cap, it doubled from $0.14 to $0.28 reported OpenDemocracy.

Despite media focus on this increase, the upsurge was rather the last drop in a very long historical process of lowering quality of life and increasing worker exploitation. 

In a matter of days, the uprising spread to central parts of the country and Kazakhstan’s capital, encompassing more social groups who joined in solidarity and started demanding more profound structural changes, such as increases in the living wages, collective bargaining recognition, improvement of worker conditions, as well as lowering pension age.

As the movement gained momentum, it quickly became politicized with new stakeholders trying to stir it in new directions. 

New Times

The Zhanaozen region has a long history of organizing with working class people being stripped of most of their rights, while the oligarch class together with foreign investors kept accumulating more and more wealth from oil exports. Some analysts call what happened in Kazakhstan a class war.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, peripheral countries like Kazakhstan incorporated very well in a neo-liberal economic order as suppliers of raw materials. The quick gains from the oil and gas industry were successfully siphoned to the ruling class, namely former president Nazarbayev’s family, as well as foreign investors.

The living conditions for the average citizen in the meantime deteriorated significantly. 

Rising conspiracy

In 2019, Nazarbayev chose his successor, the current president Tokayev, and named himself Elbasy or the ‘leader of the nation’ while keeping control over essential state institutions.

Since in power, Tokayev attempted to create a more manageable civil society, but the escalation of the crowd’s anger into more violent demonstrations motivated him to change his rhetoric.

The handful of looting incidents during these riots were the perfect opportunity for the president to call the uprising an orchestrated attack with a group of ‘terrorists’ and ‘foreign agents’ aiming to undermine the country’s sovereignty.

The conspiracy about the West organizing the protest simply can’t hold because it was Western corporations who were hit because of the strike. As an example, American oil company Chevron controls 50% of Kazakhstan’s largest oil venture in Tengiz with investment plans amounting to $50 billion. 

International geo-play

President Tokayev appealed to members of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a military alliance between Russia and five other countries including Kazakhstan, to send in external military help to suppress the uprising. Overnight, the first military planes flew in to deploy Russian troops to protect main state assets, like the Airport in Nur-Sultan (formerly called Almaty).

The foreign press was quick to raise panic and call the event a Russian invasion. Local observers and analysts point to the fact that the US used the events in Kazakhstan as an offensive play on a totally different chess board, the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

In reality, Russia’s involvement was merely a geo-political gesture of authoritarian solidarity to show president Tokayev he can rely on his neighbors.

As the waters cooled down, Tokayev was quick to reassure the foreign partners that peace was restored and their money was safe in Kazakhstan.  

Looking at the events post-factum, Aljazeera reporters conclude that Russia consolidated its influence and secured the loyalty of the Kazakh leadership. Local elites and foreign investors can resume their extractive activities.

Only the people of Kazakhstan have been defeated, but if history teaches us anything, power doesn’t stay in the same hands forever. 

The post Kazakh protest spilled over into political demands first appeared on The Postcolonial.

Greenland’s parliamentary elections ended on last Tuesday with a historical result. The present leading government party Siumut was left without decisive influence to form a new government, as the left-wing environmentalist party Inuit Ataqatigiit (IA) claimed victory and formed a joint majority of seats in parliament with centre party Naleraq.

Over half of those eligible to vote (27,079 Greenlanders out of 41,126 eligible votes) took a stance on election day where harsh weather conditions made it hard to reach voting booths. Greenlanders’ relationship to nature was essentially the decisive, hot topic influencing the election’s outcome.

Since Greenland gained autonomy from Denmark and formed its parliamentary system in 1979, Siumut has dominated the island politics apart from one exception. Now, IAs 34-year-old leader Múte Bourup Egede will be in charge of forming a new government, which he will lead for the next four years.

At a time when Greenland has received great attention from the international superpowers, the election result is likely going to have a far wider impact globally than usually. Many may remember how former US president Donald Trump tried to purchase Greenland from Denmark, that controls the islands foreign affairs and defence policies.

Mining for profit cancelled

Mining was one of the pressing issues in the elections, as IA and Naleraq were against mining for profit, whereas Siumut was more supportive of it. Anticipating this, Siumut replaced their chairman and head of Greenland’s government Kim Kielsen by Erik Jensen already last year, ensuring that the power shift would not have any effect on government. In essence, an extraordinary call to a new election was called because of a conflict regarding a mining project in Kuannersuit, in Greenland’s southern edge. Siumut’s pro stance to the project created disagreements on mining certificates within the government and ultimately, this made the Demokraatit party step out of their coalition in government leaving behind Siumut and Nunnata Qitornai, who only represent 11 mandates out of 31 in Greenland’s parliament.

Mining in Kuannersuit originally sparked concern among environmentalists as the mining could harm the area, which is already heavily impacted by global warming. The potential of large economic revenue, that could contribute to independence from Denmark, the mining project quickly became one of the primary topics during the elections. In the days following the elections, vice chairman of Siumut Vivian Motzfeldt told Danish broadcaster DR, that the mining project most likely cost her party the elections.

The outcome had an instant impact on international investors. The Australian-Chinese mining company Greenland Minerals A/S stocks fell about 44 percent in value just a day after the election.

A vote for the Danish realm

Despite the rare outcome, the Greenland elections recorded the ever lowest voting count to date, with 27,079 voters. These voters were named as ‘the worlds most important voters’ by Danish newspaper Weekendavisen’s editor-in-chief Martin Krasnik. According to him, Greenland has chosen a continued development of the Danish realm by the cost of delaying independence. This is a pragmatic decision that will cement Greenland and Denmark’s position when negotiating initiatives between USA, Russia and China in the arctic region the coming years.

According to some of the latest news, Russia is attempting to claim 70 percent of the Arctic Ocean seabed. This represents an area of around 800,000 square kilometres, touching the likes of Greenland/Denmark, Canada, Norway, Russia and the United States. The claim has been formally sent to relevant international institutions, and will be examined by the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf by 2022.

Sovereignty of the seabed gives the winner exclusive access to potential natural resources such as oil and gas. However, Russia’s claim does not include the seabed in areas north of Alaska where the US has shown interest for years.

In terms of defence policies, the arctic region is receiving a lot of attention from global superpowers. In October last year a Chinese icebreaker sailed unannounced into Greenland’s territorial waters, according to Reuters.

Because Denmark oversees all defence policies in Greenland, the growing international attention to the area led Denmark to invest 1,5 billion Danish Kroner in February to strengthen defence and add more high-tech based surveillance in the Arctic and North Atlantic region. The investment included a Greenlandic military education the island has never seen before.

Greenland is now finding itself in the centre of global geopolitical games, surrounded by the world’s superpowers competing for emerging sea routes through the arctic due to global warming, and accessibility to rare minerals and defence politics.

The post The Global Impact of Greenland’s Elections Result first appeared on The Postcolonial.