On the occasion of the BRICS summit that has just started in Russia, we had an exclusive conversation with Dan Kovalik, human and labor rights lawyer, about the importance of this event for the world economy and multipolarity. teleSUR
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00:00And to go deeper on the importance of this year BRICS Summit, we are joined by U.S. human
00:05rights and labor rights lawyer, Dan Kowalik.
00:07Hello, Dan.
00:08Welcome to From the South.
00:10Good morning.
00:11Hi, good morning.
00:12Dan, all is ready for the summit to begin in a couple of hours.
00:16This summit in particular comes in a key moment in the international arena.
00:20All eyes are on what the BRICS 2024 Summit can produce.
00:24So what can we expect and how important is this year's summit?
00:29Well, it's very important.
00:30I mean, I think the world is waiting, you know, for the expansion of this multipolar
00:37world of another pole to essentially protect the rest of the world from the West and the
00:44United States.
00:46There's some hope that eventually a new currency will come out of this to compete with the
00:51U.S. dollar.
00:52I guess Putin has signaled that that won't come at this meeting, but I think eventually
00:57that will come.
00:58And I think the one thing I understand will come out of this is that Venezuela will be
01:03admitted as a full partner of BRICS.
01:08Growth of the BRICS format is one of the main topics in this year.
01:12Earlier this year, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates
01:16joined the block.
01:17Other countries, as you were saying, have expressed their readiness, like Venezuela,
01:20Cuba and many others.
01:22So the question is, how can BRICS, as it continues to grow, bring about that multipolar world
01:27with enhanced cooperation and win-win trade among the peoples of the world?
01:31Well, I think the main thing they can do is to try to protect countries from U.S. sanctions.
01:38Right now the U.S. has 30 percent of the world's population under sanctions.
01:44And the only way it's able to do that is through its dominance of the world economy, through
01:50the dominance of the U.S. dollar.
01:52And so I think BRICS will have to come up with a new currency that will be able to compete
02:00with the U.S. dollar so countries don't have to depend on the dollar, and therefore the
02:06sanctions won't hurt as much.
02:09And of course, BRICS will open up new paths of trade, again, that will allow countries
02:14to be able to avoid the worst of the sanctions.
02:20Just earlier today, President Putin had a meeting with the New Development Bank President
02:26Dilma Rousseff, and they were talking about enhancing these transactions in national currencies
02:31and in the idea of creating a new currency for BRICS countries to trade in for the benefit
02:37of the nation.
02:38How could this currency be?
02:40How would it work?
02:42Well, I'm not an economist, so I'm not exactly sure how it will work, but I think ultimately
02:49if you get buy-in from all these countries, which represent, I think they'll end up representing
02:57a majority of the world's population.
02:58I mean, when you have China and India alone, you have a huge percentage of the world's
03:03population.
03:04So if you have all these countries buy into a new currency, and if that currency is backed
03:09by something, by oil, for example, or gold, I think that they would have a real chance
03:16to compete with the U.S. dollar, which is frankly backed on nothing but the full faith
03:22in credit clause of the U.S. Constitution.
03:24And I think people are realizing they can't really put faith in the dollar, because, again,
03:31it's based on nothing.
03:33And the U.S. is so far in debt that the dollar, again, once there's an alternative to it,
03:41I think the dollar will collapse.
03:45Another important topic coming to the table in this summit, aside from the growth of the
03:49BRICS, is also the Israeli ongoing aggressions against the peoples of the Middle East.
03:54And what role can BRICS play to bring an end to the Tel Aviv expansionist policies and
03:59secure peace and stability in the Middle Eastern region?
04:03Well, again, when you have key members of BRICS, like Russia, China, Iran, you have
04:08a bloc that really could stop this genocide if they wanted to.
04:15And that might require a military intervention of some kind.
04:18And you know, Russia's already intervened in Syria to end that dirty war that the West
04:25started in 2011.
04:30And I think, you know, Putin's been making noise that if Israel keeps going farther into
04:36Lebanon and certainly if it goes into Syria, that they will have Russia to contend to.
04:42So I do think this represents a bloc that could end this war.
04:48Also high interest in the Ukraine crisis.
04:51Many nations are talking about how to bring an end to a negotiated process.
04:56And Putin himself said that he is willing to negotiate with Ukraine if it's done in
05:01the framework of the document drawn up in Turkey, where Ukraine will declare itself
05:05neutral and will reduce its armaments, and will, of course, not join NATO.
05:10So do you think, how could this process happen in this BRICS summit?
05:13What can come out of this?
05:14Well, first of all, we have to remember there was a deal that seemed that both sides could
05:21live with back in March 2022, meaning, you know, within about a month of the war starting,
05:27frankly, in which Ukraine could have kept all of the land it had prior to the special
05:32military operations beginning in February 2022.
05:36And the U.S. and U.K. intervened to kill that peace deal.
05:39So obviously, peace is possible, though I think in this, by now, it's not going to be on
05:45terms that were offered then.
05:47I don't think they're going to be able to get back those four voted to go with Russia.
05:51But, you know, certainly, again, I think the countries that are in BRICS and the BRICS
05:59alliance can play a big role in helping negotiate a peace deal.
06:04Thank you, Dan, for your time here in From the South.
06:09It's our pleasure.
06:10We're going to stay tuned with everything that happens on BRICS, and we're going to
06:12be reporting here in From the South.