MEMO: The BRICS international municipal cooperation project

The Russian foreign policy agenda is presented by the Brazilian mainstream media as being based on military campaigns and territorial confrontations.

Contrary to what they try to present to us, Russia is encouraging the BRICS agenda, intertwining the initiatives of the Kremlin and its foreign ministry with the economic projection led by Beijing and its allied countries.

Within this set of initiatives – which we usually write about and analyze here – we point out one more, this time focused on para-diplomacy.

From August 27 to 28, 2024, the IMBRICS Forum, the 6th International Municipal Forum of the BRICS countries, was held at the Expocenter in Moscow.

This is yet another soft power effort coming from Russia, holding events from the Asian development axis and aimed at the Global South and has the endorsement of the founding countries of the bloc Brazil, Russia, China, India and South Africa, the sum of consolidated emerging states whose GDP already exceeds that of the G7+1.

According to the Forum’s official website , the self-definition is this:

“The BRICS International Municipal Forum is an important platform for the exchange of experience and ideas between representatives of regional and municipal governments of the BRICS countries, as well as for building effective business communications with entrepreneurs from Russia and other partner countries.

The event is supported by the Presidential Administration and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, as well as the Federal Agency “Rossotrudnichestvo” and the Government of Moscow.

By the decision of Yuri Ushakov, Assistant to the President of the Russian Federation, the IMBRICS Forum is included in the Action Plan of the Presidency of the Russian Federation on the BRICS Interstate Association in 2024 (paragraph 147).

In 2022, the IMBRICS Forum was included in the text of the Beijing Declaration of the XIV BRICS Summit (paragraph 70) and is designated as a significant mechanism to promote urban development and establish linkages between twin cities of the BRICS countries within the framework of the Sustainable Development Agenda until 2030”.

This event is an important platform for the exchange of experiences and ideas between representatives of regional and municipal governments of the BRICS countries, as well as for building effective business contacts with businessmen in Russia and other partner countries.

In other words, within the spectrum of international relations, it occupies the space of para-diplomacy.

This takes place when subnational governments (in the case of the Brazilian administrative division, these are municipalities and states) enter into relations with each other (as in the twin city policy) or between these units and sovereign countries.

As part of its strategy to project power beyond the continental mass where it is located, the Russian Federation has selected a considerable number of important figures to attend the event.

The participating officials included representatives of Russia’s legislative and executive bodies, several directors of Russian community centers and organizations, guests from the BRICS countries and several other countries.

For illustration purposes, we can observe the presence of the following people in positions of power and decision-making:

Deputy Chairman of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation Boris Aleksandrovich Chernyshov; Director of the Department of State Policy in the Sphere of Education, Supplementary Education and Recreation of Children of the Ministry of Education of Russia Natalya Valentinovna; Director of the Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution “MCD Artek” Konstantin Albertovich Fedorenko; President of the Alyosha Foundation Aleksey Vladimirovich Zinoviev; Deputy Chairman of the Board of the First Movement (pro-Putin youth wing) Sonya Grigoryevna Pogosyan; Director of the English Camp Sandra Goulart Urioste (Brazil); President of the Canadian NGO International Camping Fellowship (ICF) Fahrettin Gozet (Turkey); and Chairman of the Board of the Institute of Camp Education of China Nie Aijun.

The speakers gave presentations, shared their experiences in organizing the camp in question, and also discussed current initiatives to expand the activities of the camp movement and non-formal education, including in the BRICS countries.

The logic behind this type of event is direct competition with the exchange student movement.

The US defines a high school exchange student as a permanent and voluntary US ambassador.

This is the definition given by Senator James William Fulbright himself (Democrat from Arkansas, segregationist, militarist, and an operator of imperialist soft power) and encourages the Empire’s exchange programs, attracting young people from all over the world, with special attention to Latin American and Asian elites.

Among the topics covered in the Forum, we highlight the following thematic axes: “Economic development of BRICS territories: the growing role of megacities and their investment attractiveness; International Intermunicipal; Future energy; Innovative technologies for energy efficiency in BRICS cities and regions; New model of sustainable development in the BRICS format; Education and Science; Interparliamentary cooperation between BRICS capitals and cities; Digital projects and IT technologies; Culture and Sports; Industry, Technological development; Transport and logistics; Youth of the future, Potential, areas of opportunity within BRICS”.

The underlying understanding of these themes is the alignment of municipal resources – from megacities or metropolitan consortia – and the consequent provision of technological solutions based on Russian, Chinese and Indian information systems.

It is clear that the BRICS System must advance in terms of financing projects for sustainable urbanization, such as that carried out at the Ninth Annual Meeting of the New Development Bank .

The set of projects currently being financed by the NDB (also known as the BRICS Bank) can be consulted at this link.

If the volume of international trade transactions without the use of the dollar continues to increase, it is possible that more resources will be allocated to municipal interventions at the BRICS Forum, materializing the debates such as those mentioned above.

The intervention of Professor Sandra Goulart Urioste and the South-South exchange line 

Within the framework of the forum, a roundtable was held on the role of extracurricular education and international cooperation among young people.

The experience of cities and municipalities of the BRICS countries in the field of extracurricular education was discussed.

The coordinator of the Youth Camp (run in English), Sandra Gourlat Urioste (Brazilian) noted in her report that international exchange programs allow children and young people to access a wide range of educational services that go beyond their local context.

These experiences promote cultural awareness, tolerance and a sense of global citizenship, which are essential in modern multicultural societies.

Urioste also emphasized that, over the years, international cooperation has attracted leaders, observers and friends from various countries, such as Mexico, Russia, Mongolia, South Africa, New Zealand, England, the United States, Saudi Arabia, Sweden and others, to the English Language Camp (which she directs).

Obviously, the instrument of exchanges can make it much easier to form a generation of young intellectuals from BRICS member countries, Asian states and the so-called Global South, escaping the American, Anglo-Saxon and pro-Western cultural hegemony.

One of the greatest shortcomings of middle powers – like Brazil – is to form thinking layers of a medium and long-term national strategy.

Unfortunately, the presence of US culture is so great that the middle class and the ruling class do not even project themselves as Brazilian.

The upper echelons of the country – and of Latin America – see themselves as wealthy Miamians and not as people with historical responsibility for the development of our territory.

If the BRICS events help to reverse this sign of weakness in the country, they will already be a great contribution; in addition to the much-needed structural urbanization and environmental projects.

The original article here