Understanding China’s history could help western observers see its foreign policy more clearly.
President Lula at the opening of the UN General Assembly last week: the challenge for Brazil is to maintain political independence without taking sides in the dispute over the new global hegemony between China and the United States.
Mary Altaffer/AP
Monica Herz, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio) and Giancarlo Summa, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS)
The war in Ukraine is both a symptom and a cause of a paralysing crisis in the international system. It is up to the Global South to reform the multilateral system.
China’s president Xi Jinping is testing out a “softer” foreign policy approach.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin toast during their dinner at the Kremlin in Moscow in March 2023.
(Pavel Byrkin, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
The spectacle of two UN Security Council members — China and Russia — allegedly perpetrating mass atrocity crimes is deeply troubling. Here’s how the international community must step up.
BRICS leaders announce the outcomes of the XV BRICS Summit, at the Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg, 24 August 2023.
Official media of 15th BRICS Summit
It would help African countries to have a common position on the Ukraine war. This should be based on its impact on food and energy security in the continent.
Russian president Vladimir Putin speaking via video link at the 2023 Brics summit in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Marco Longari/Pool via AP
Talk of a joint BRICS currency feeds into ‘decline of the dollar’ rhetoric. But it is the economic bloc’s focus on innovation that will reshape the international system.
Lula and Modi walking a new diplomatic path.
Takashi Aoyama/AFP via Getty Images
Brazil and India are among the countries pointedly not taking sides over the war in Ukraine. But this is not the nonaligned movement of yesteryear.
Chinese President Xi Jinping hosted the 14th BRICS Summit via video link in Beijing. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended the summit.
Li Tao/Xinhua via Getty Images
Geopolitics is forcing BRICS countries to balance respect for international law, self-determination, sovereignty and peaceful resolution of disputes with their friendly relations with Russia.
President Vladimir Putin, left, and President Cyril Ramaphosa in Sochi, Russia, in 2019.
Sergei Chirikov/Pool/AFP via Getty Images.