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Absolutely astonishing that Iran and Saudi Arabia would be admitted side-by-side. Geopolitical arch-rivals joining the same economic bloc like this might signal a watershed moment for multipolarity.

    • hexi [they/them]
      ·
      11 months ago

      Maybe the bloc can be a mediator for the Nile damn conflict, since it's a big economic issue for both.

      • Barbariandude [he/him]
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        11 months ago

        That's what immediately sprung to mind for me as well. If they could come to a compromise about the hydro reservoir filling speed, that'd be a huge increase in stability for the whole area.

        • hexi [they/them]
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          11 months ago

          Most likely the New Development Bank will give loans to Ethiopia to fill up the damn slowly.

          Egypt doesn't have to worry about the river running low, and Ethiopia can balance the lost gains from filling up the damn quickly with cheap cash from BRICS.

      • quarrk [he/him]
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        11 months ago

        Well yeah BRICS isn’t exactly some Avengers assembly, it has a limited scope. Class is the defining line of struggle in capitalism, that is why coalition can be found among quite distinct groups. Fred Hampton and the Rainbow Coalition are one historical example. Maybe some people are reading BRICS as a stronger association than it is, but it is a Very Big Deal because it actually is a direct threat to US hegemony, maybe the largest ever depending on how successful it is in the next decade.

          • quarrk [he/him]
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            11 months ago

            I agree that BRICS isn’t significant yet, it’s a looming storm cloud for the US. I meant more broadly that de-dollarization is the most direct non-military means for other nations to challenge US hegemony.

            If BRICS is able to budge even oil trade away from USD then that has cascading effects. When countries need fewer USD to buy oil then they don’t need to export as much other things to the US to maintain their USD balance.

    • Tankiedesantski [he/him]
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      11 months ago

      I was so taken aback by Iran and Saudi that I didn't even pick up on that. I suppose it's not unprecedented in BRICS since China and India have that perpetual border kerfuffle.