"Brazil is back." This was the main mantra that Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva used during the first months of his third Brazilian presidency, starting in January 2023. He meant to send a message to the world that Brazil was again one of the main voices in the global arena. And it was true. Not only because the country re-entered the top 10 world economies after a 2.9-percent GDP growth in 2023, but also because Lula himself was back. He is one of the few current world heads of state that is highly praised as a contemporary leader, both in Global South and North.

Under former President Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil became an uncomfortable partner for several countries around the world, either because of his environmental policies (or lack of them) or simply because he decided to pick up fights with other presidents or governments.

That scenario had an impact on Brazil's role in BRICS. Although the country continued to attend the summits, the importance given to the group was significantly reduced. In 2019, the first year of Bolsonaro's four-year term, the BRICS annual summit was held in Brazil. For the first time since 2013, no country other than the five members was invited.

When Lula returned to power, his officials discovered that Brazil was almost completely unengaged in the debates that were taking place within BRICS. This seems to be one of the main challenges for our region: the power struggle between anti-multilateralism and pro-U.S. projects and projects that aim to build a multipolar world and allow greater political and economic autonomy from the Global North and the multilateral institutions dominated by the countries that belong to that region. 

Nonetheless, as Lula expressed in the final press conference at the 15th BRICS Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, in August last year, "The BRICS are an inexorable reality."

"What we are doing in the BRICS is very serious," he added.

The quest for autonomy from the dollar 

One of the first topics that Lula addressed as soon as he arrived in China last year, a few months after taking office, was the development of alternatives in order for countries to reduce their dependence on the U.S. dollar.

"Every night, I ask myself why all countries are forced to trade in dollars. Why can't we trade in our own currency?" Lula said at the ceremony for former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff's inauguration as head of the New Development Bank (NDB), formerly known as the BRICS Development Bank, in Shanghai in April 2023.

Later, in Johannesburg, BRICS commissioned finance ministers and central bank governors with the task of studying the issue of local currencies, payment instruments and platforms. The advancement in this regard could be one of BRICS' most important practical results after the creation of the NDB.

The increase in the weaponization of the U.S. dollar, which now reaches the point of confiscation of reserves, only served to solidify the consensus among the BRICS members on the need to come up with a payment system that relies on local currencies.

Experts from all the member countries agree that what has been called a "BRICS currency" is far from being a reality. But the use of local currencies for transactions is most likely to become a reality soon.

Goals and challenges 

From January 1, 2025, Brazil will hold the BRICS presidency under the motto "Strengthening Global South Cooperation for More Inclusive and Sustainable Governance." The priorities will be reform of global governance institutions, promotion of multilateralism, fighting hunger and poverty, reducing inequality, and promoting sustainable development.

The 2025 BRICS summit is likely to be held in the middle of next year, because Brazil will also be hosting the 30th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC COP 30). Some experts consider this somewhat unfortunate, since it will significantly reduce the time for Brazil to develop actions, thus limiting the scope of announcements that could be made.

Another concern among some Brazilian experts, including Fabiano Mielniczuk, a professor of political science at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, is that the country may be distancing itself from BRICS because institutions and officials have different visions about the group, with some of them, like some NGOs, being aligned with the Global North and therefore unwilling to establish dialogue with Russian or Chinese counterparts. One sign of this was the low Brazilian participation in some of the 200 activities organized this year under the Russian presidency.

Detractors of BRICS, both in the Global North and within Brazil, want to portray China, Russia and now, Iran as part of a supposed "anti-Western" side of BRICS. Those who perceive these countries in this way see their influence within BRICS as a "hardening" of its orientation. Every representative has reinforced the value that BRICS and its measures are not aimed against third parties. In a bilateral meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on October 22, ahead of the 2024 BRICS Summit in Kazan, Russia, Chinese President

Xi Jinping also reiterated the concept, saying that China and Russia have found the right way for neighboring major countries to get along with each other, which includes "not targeting third parties."

Trying to draw a kind of "axis of evil" within BRICS only serves the goal of sowing discord among its members. The organization's diversity is a fact, and even more so after its expansion. But it is difficult to see advantages in retreating from dialogue and building partnerships that ultimately seek more development options.

Avoiding dialogue and partnerships with non-Western countries is actually form of anti-Easternism. Brazil and other Latin American countries have little to win by following this path.

The building of BRICS is about seeking to change and overcome the inequalities and misrepresentations that have become part of the architecture of international governance. Among the BRICS leaders, Lula is one of the most vocal on this topic. Early this year, during a visit to Ethiopia, he advocated changes in the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, asking, "Will these institutions serve to finance the development of poor countries, or will they continue to exist to suffocate poor countries?"

Next year, Brazil has a great opportunity, under Lula, to maintain the spirit that led to the creation of BRICS 18 years ago and to keep the pace and take advantage of the growing appeal that the group has among Global South countries. This moment represents an important opportunity for Brazil to strengthen its role as a Global South leader by further improving BRICS mechanisms and long-term strategies. Other Brazilian leaders in the future may not have strength, charisma or even the intention to contribute in that way. By not prioritizing BRICS, as was the case under Bolsonaro, Brazil takes the risk of undermining its own ambitions of becoming a relevant global leader and remaining vulnerable to strategies that are designed by and/or

have the complicity of countries in the Global North. They are strategies such as these that took Lula out of the previous presidential race and put him in prison for 520 days.

Furthermore, a strong BRICS in this geopolitical environment, which Lula himself defined as a "transformational process," is far more aligned with the expectations of the Brazilian people that elected him than subordination to the United States, which is the agenda of the candidate that lost the election.

The author is the China correspondent for the TV dos Trabalhadores network in Brazil

Copyedited by G.P. Wilson 

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