PRETORIA, July 24. /TASS/. The West fears the expansion of the BRICS as it poses a threat to the current unipolar world order. Pedro Mzileni, professor of sociology at the Free State University in Bloemfontein, shared this opinion in an article published by the Sowetan portal on Monday.
"The expansion of BRICS is posing an international threat to the unipolar system of operationalizing the world - which has been dominated and controlled by the US for the past 70 years," he wrote. The expert stressed that the US fears Russia’s military power and economic independence.
Meanwhile the West is trying dominate such countries as South Africa which is proved by the situation with the arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC). This prevented him from personally attending BRICS summit in South Africa.
According to the expert, the economic dependence of South Africa, Brazil and India on the US weakens the alliance.
"The vulnerability of SA to foreign interference as a result of miscalculated decisions taken in its early days of independence is posing a serious threat to the global project of international transformation," the expert wrote.
The expert noted that the countries of the Global South need to discuss this problem at the summit in order to form a viable independent and independent alliance, despite Western sanctions.
"This requires an expansion of the bloc to include rapidly growing economies like Ethiopia - who will bring renewed eco-political energy, independence, military power, food sovereignty and consistent economic growth to provide the Global South with more diversified markets," the expert added.
BRICS includes Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. In addition to Ethiopia, Algeria, Bangladesh and Egypt have officially applied for BRICS membership. Argentina, Iran, as well as Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey also expressed their interest in joining the group.
Earlier, Anil Suklal, Ambassador-at-Large for Asia and BRICS at the South African Foreign Ministry and South Africa's BRICS Sherpa, said that in the process of expansion, BRICS could unite more than 50 countries.
The BRICS summit will be held on August 22-24 in Johannesburg, South Africa. It will be the largest meeting of heads of state and government of the Global South in recent years. The invitees included the leaders of 54 African countries. The President of Russia will take part in this event via video link. The Russian side will be represented in person by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.