FROM EIR DAILY ALERT

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BRICS Plus Is ‘Creating a New Platform for Cooperation’ Internationally

July 25, 2018 (EIRNS)—Under the title, “BRICS Plus Model Can Unite Developing Countries,” He Wenping from China’s Charhar Institute (she addressed the Nov. 25-26, 2017 Schiller Institute conference in Bad Soden, Germany), and Hisham Abu Bakr Metwally from Egypt’s Ministry of Foreign Trade and Industry, report in the July 24 Global Times that the concept of “BRICS Plus,” first launched by China at the BRICS Summit of 2017 in Xiamen, is a concept “to open a gateway to other countries and regions” in order to “create a new platform for cooperation among countries across different continents.” This year, the heads of state or government were invited from Argentina, Turkey, Indonesia, Egypt, and Jamaica; and from Africa, Rwanda, Senegal, Uganda, Gabon, Burundi, Ethiopia, Togo, Angola. Every country this year holds the rotating chairmanship of a multilateral or regional nations grouping, such as the AU (Rwanda), or the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (Turkey).

The BRICS Plus will “extend the use of national currencies to overseas investments and bilateral and multilateral trade, thus reducing the dependency on the U.S. dollar.”

The two scholars call for Egypt and other nations to participate in the BRICS Plus, and perhaps eventually become full members.