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Opinion | The US should counter China’s dominance in the Global South with trade, not more arms
- The US still has distinct advantages, including, critically, a growing population. But it must ease off sanctions and its single-minded focus on security
- Instead, it must present the developing world with more broad-based economic cooperation and a return to globalisation
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Brics, the bloc compromising Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, has long been accused of geopolitical incoherence and irrelevance. The five countries differ among themselves on several global questions and have varied equations with the West, ranging from friend to foe.
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Yet, that incoherence has not dimmed the developing world’s interest in joining them. Last month at the Johannesburg summit, the grouping inducted six new nations from Asia, Africa and Latin America. Over 40 countries across the Global South had expressed interest in membership in recent years.
Much of this momentum might reasonably be credited to China’s growing global footprint. China enjoys almost unrivalled clout in the developing world. The induction of Iran and Saudi Arabia, for instance, had been preceded by a monumental thaw brokered by Beijing.
Meanwhile, Russia, long a security player in Africa and the Middle East, has been considerably weakened by the Ukraine war. In recent months, it has staved off an attempted rebellion in Moscow and is witnessing turmoil within the influential private militia, Wagner Group, an important player in Africa and Ukraine.
At first glance, India, which hosted the G20 summit last weekend, seems to be doing much better. But New Delhi, too, is increasingly beset by internal security problems, some of which are testing its ability to counterbalance China militarily and economically. Following ethnic conflict in the northeastern state of Manipur this year, India had to divert troops away from its contentious border with China to deal with that crisis.
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India also remains far behind China on almost all economic parameters and lacks a framework to rival China’s role in the Belt and Road Initiative and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.
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