Much global attention this week is expected to focus on Kazan in Russia, where leaders of an expanded Brics grouping are meeting. More than 20 heads of state will be present, including those of China and Iran—US adversaries that were clubbed with Russia and North Korea as an “axis of upheaval” by an American think tank.
As host, Russian President Vladimir Putin will probably try using the event as a show of strength in non-Western resistance to the West’s power.
If progress is made on taking trade off the US dollar, it may serve as grist for political mills in America, which may not just disapprove, but, if Donald Trump wins the White House, even impose punitive measures, going by his campaign rhetoric.
Since India, a founding BRICS member, would not want the US rubbed the wrong way, de-dollarization may remain just a paper plan. New Delhi is unlikely to risk any signal going out of giving up its neutral stance in geopolitics and has clarified that it has no qualms using the dollar.
Still, the summit’s highlight might turn out to be any direct interaction between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and China’s Xi Jinping, given recent signs of a thaw in bilateral relations.
