BRICS offers a promising platform for South-South cooperation, says Indian scholar

BRICS Photo: brics-russia2020.ru

China’s experiences of poverty eradication should be used to urge the BRICS to take up the mantle of leadership for the poorest people on the planet, Vijay Prashad, an Indian scholar and Executive Director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, said in an interview with People’s Daily Online.

China has managed to achieve a victory in the battle against poverty, meeting the poverty eradication target set out in the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development ten years ahead of time.

At the heart of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted by all UN members in 2015 are 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with Goal 1 being to bring an end poverty in all its forms everywhere.

Prashad noted that the SDGs are essential to the current situation in the world when the COVID-19 pandemic has hurt billions of people. He called on nations to take serious actions to end hunger and abolish poverty, adding that China’s experience should be used to urge the BRICS to take up the mantle of leadership for the poorest people on the planet.

For this year’s BRICS summit, the Indian scholar said that he expected the BRICS members to discuss the importance of the climate adaptation fund based on the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities.

Prashad expressed his concerns about serious dilemmas for humanity, as encapsulated in the SDGs. “Social wealth is going toward the military ($2 trillion last year) and toward financial speculation (trillions of dollars),” he said. “This waste of resources, on top of the US imposed pressure campaign on Eurasia, is a diversion from the real dilemmas.”

“BRICS has been a promise for an alternative mode of financing for development and for trade as well as offering a platform for South-South cooperation,” Prashad commented, adding that he hoped BRICS countries will take the real dilemmas seriously and offer genuine leadership for the world.