President Hage Geingob says Namibia appreciates the BRICS principles which offer equality to nations willing to participate in global economic, financial and business opportunities.
“In Namibia, we too hold dear these principles as a condition sine qua non to build a shared, peaceful and prosperous global community in which all countries big and small interact as sovereigns on equal footing, without any country being left out or subjected to the forceful imposition of particular value systems,” said Geingob while addressing member states at the just ended three-day BRICS summit in South Africa.
“Hence, BRICS offers that alternative option by assuring likeminded countries an opportunity to participate and do business in an international economic and financial system, which is based on universally recognised international principles and values such as non-interference in domestic affairs, mutual respect and win-win cooperation,” he reiterated.
He said this in cognisance of the historical dominance of the Bretton Woods financial institutions whose modus operandi, he said is built on loan conditionalities and political prescriptions which has, at times bordered on disregard for national sovereignty.
The Bretton Woods system was an international monetary agreement that standardised currency exchange rates.
Currencies belonging to various nations were pegged against the US dollar. The US dollar itself was pegged against the price of gold. It aimed to bring uniformity to global exchange rates.
As a result, three global institutions, The World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Forum were established.
“This has, however, increased the appetite among many nations for a counterweight such as BRICS,” he said.
BRICS consists of countries such as Britain, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The economic pact has now also accepted new member countries such as Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Iran to become full BRICS members in January 2024, thus transitioning it to BRICS Plus. Other phases are yet to follow.
The expansion of the group is part of its plan to build dominance and reshape global governance into a “multipolar” world order that puts the voices of the Global South at the centre of the world agenda.
“I trust that this dialogue will elaborate on some of the crucial modalities of how an expanded BRICS PLUS will function in the best interest of all its members. We hope that BRICS will not be divided like the United Nations, which has a Security Council for the few with veto powers and the General Assembly for the majority of Member States who don’t enjoy the same privilege of a veto,” Geingob said on Thursday.
“We believe that an important global grouping of nations such as BRICS, which is born from the collective five desire of the countries from the South to make the international order more just and equitable, and favourable to peace and development for all, will break down the barriers of division, confrontation and conflicts,” he stated.
In addition, Geingob appreciated his invitation to the summit, emphasising Namibia’s acceptance of the core principles of equality and mutual respect on which BRICS is built.
“Namibia has recently handed over the chairpersonship of the SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation to Zambia as the incoming Chair a week ago in Angola, yet was invited to this important gathering. We are greatly honoured,” said Geingob.
