On the recently concluded BRICS summit and its implications for world geopolitics, teleSUR spoke exclusively with Eduardo Meneses, political analyst from Ecuador. teleSUR
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00:00To go deep into the relevance of the 16th summit of the BRICS 2024 from Ecuador,
00:05we invite political analyst Eduardo Menezes. Hi Eduardo, thank you for your time here and from the south.
00:13Thank you for the invitation.
00:17The BRICS summit comes to an end after three days of intense debates.
00:21Can we say that this event will mark a before and an after in the world's political order as a counterweight?
00:28Or we could say as a counterweight of hegemonic powers?
00:34Well, I do believe that
00:37this
00:38this forum is specifically suited for
00:43answering the challenges that we are living right now as a historical, a historic moment in terms of
00:50the war scenario that is being structured in our planet, in different conflicts,
00:57Ukraine and Russia, the genocide in Palestine, all the tensions that the U.S. are financing against China through Taiwan.
01:05So definitely, I think that in the middle of this growing tension between
01:10the U.S. and the emerging
01:13multipolar world, this forum has had a very specific and important role, which is
01:20confirming its proposal to a restructuring of,
01:23for restructuring for the global government. So in that sense, it is very important. There are still many things to be built,
01:30but the dynamic that this forum is taking in this historical moment is key for the next decade.
01:39The meeting took place amid an uncertain international scenario marked by the Israeli genocide against the people of Palestine and as well
01:48as the increased aggressions against Lebanon and Syria.
01:51How the summit has been a space to voice the suffering of the peoples of the Middle East?
01:59So I think that we could see three main things here.
02:03The first one is when we observe how the BRICS are expanding to new members,
02:10we definitely see Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia,
02:14United Arab Emirates, Ethiopia. And this is an expansion which is very different from the traditional
02:21Western-led governance, which is including G7, G8 groups from a
02:27they are trying to have a hegemonic perspective from the Western
02:31perspective led by the U.S. So that's a first point where
02:35definitely the Middle East countries are more and more involved and more and more taking account in this new multipolar
02:43order that is emerging, which is not something that someone decides. It is a reality from the economic
02:49geopolitical facts. There's a second very important
02:54point which was highlighted in the declaration of this summit,
02:59which was the total support for inclusion of Palestine as a complete UN member.
03:05So this again, this has been a position that has been already been defended by all the countries in the BRICS, but
03:12having this regional support perspective as a whole
03:17new perspective of multilateralism is essential to support the Palestinian right to have
03:23a state which is recognized, which deserves to live in peace, which has to be
03:29respected and not being
03:31occupied by military forces and even worse being a victim of genocide.
03:36But the third one, and I think that that would be maybe the most
03:39important point in terms of long-term perspective, is to ask the concrete
03:45support for a reform of the UN Security Council. We have been seeing that many forums, but we have now BRICS
03:54in its declaration
03:55claiming the need
03:57for a new
03:59architecture of the UN and specifically the Security Council where we should have a Security Council, which is
04:05more inclusive of new members
04:09being emerging economies, but also developing countries, reducing the veto power that has only the five permanent members of the
04:18of the Security Council and also much more transparency and accountability of what opposition say to them.
04:24So all of that makes a very clear signal
04:27towards the necessity of thinking how Palestine cannot become or cannot open a new era of
04:36brutality,
04:37of violation of human rights without anything happening. So this is a very important message.
04:42Right. Eduardo, Israel's policy of blockading Gaza has resulted in hunger and dire health conditions for the population.
04:50Also, the US blockade against Cuba similarly has resulted in difficult conditions for ordinary Cubans.
04:56So how do you see blockades and sanctions as a foreign policy tool when this affects mainly the population of a country?
05:04Well, this is, in fact, this was also a very important point discussed in the BRICS, right?
05:10There was this clear denouncement about how
05:14these unilateral sanctions are being used as an imperialist tool
05:20by the US and their, some of the European allies,
05:24against countries that do not align with their geopolitical goals.
05:29In fact, if we see a little bit on the lines
05:31of the European Commission, very shortly after the release of the declaration of the summit, of the BRICS summit,
05:37they stated that they were not agreeing with some of the things that were said there, because clearly
05:44this summit expressed the total
05:48illegal decisions that have been taken and sanctions that have been taken by the
05:53European Commission, by the US, against Iran, for example, against Russia, for example,
05:58when they are saying that they are taking these for,
06:02because they are, there are violations of human rights, there are violations of the democratic rights,
06:08but at the same time they are saying anything against Israel. So that was a very important topic that was treated in the BRICS.
06:15I do believe that it's time now,
06:18and then we can see totally how these sanctions have been evolving in the last two decades, and
06:24are being used totally as a financial weapon. It is not,
06:29neither the US, neither the European Commission or the European Parliament are taking
06:36account of
06:37human rights or democratic rights. This is, those, all of those, has been mere
06:43excuses for, in fact, taking a financial war against
06:48the countries that are not aligned with their geopolitical goals.
06:51This is very clear in the case of
06:54Cuba, as you mentioned, the case of Venezuela, and in fact, what we do need is
07:00actual democratic decisions in the UN when we can take
07:05military embargo, for example, as a continuation of the decision that was, has been, the decision that has been both voted in the UN
07:14General Assembly or even in the UN General Assembly,
07:17voted in the UN General Assembly or even in the UN
07:21Security Council
07:23by the
07:25by the Council of the International Court of Justice. For example, we have had one year of many international decisions that have been
07:33rooted on human rights against
07:36what Israel is doing as a genocide in Palestine, and nothing has happened. So this clearly reveals how this has been
07:43merely,
07:44all these sanctions are being used by the US and European countries as a part of their financial war for the ones who are not
07:51answered to their interests.
07:53Thank you. Thank you, Eduardo, very much for your time here in From the South.