Brazil joins India in China’s abandonment of BRI: Rediff Moneynews

Beijing, Oct 29 (PTI) In a major setback for China’s BRI project, Brazil has decided not to join Beijing’s multibillion-dollar initiative, becoming the second country after India in the BRICS bloc not to approve the mega-project.

Brazil, led by President Lula da Silva, will not join the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and will instead seek alternative ways to cooperate with Chinese investors, Celso Amorim, the president’s special adviser on international affairs, said on Monday.

Brazil wants to “take relations with China to a new level without having to sign an accession treaty,” he told Brazilian newspaper O Globo.

“We are not entering into a treaty,” Amorim said, explaining that Brazil does not want to use Chinese infrastructure and trade projects as an “insurance policy.”

Amorim said the goal is to use part of the Belt and Road structure to find “synergy” between Brazilian infrastructure projects and investment funds linked to the initiative, without necessarily formally joining the group, Hong Kong-based South China newspaper reported Morning Post. quoted his words.

The Chinese “call it the belt (and road) … and they can give it whatever names they want, but the important thing is that there are projects that Brazil has identified as a priority that may or may not be accepted by (Beijing),” Amorim said.

The decision flies in the face of China’s plans to make Brazil’s entry into the initiative the centerpiece of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s state visit to Brasilia on November 20, the Post reported.

Representatives from Brazil’s economic and foreign ministries recently spoke out against the idea, the report said.

The prevailing view in Brazil was that joining China’s flagship infrastructure project not only would not bring Brazil any tangible benefits in the short term, but could also complicate relations with a potential Trump administration.

Amorim and the president’s chief of staff, Rui Costa, traveled to Beijing last week to discuss the initiative. Sources said they returned “unconvinced and unimpressed” with China’s proposals, the Post reported.

Lula did not attend the BRICS summit in Kazan this month due to injury, and his close ally and former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff currently heads the Shanghai-based BRICS New Development Bank (NDB).

BRICS initially consisted of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were accepted as new members.

Brazil will become the second BRICS member after India not to support the BRI.

India was the first country to voice reservations and stand firmly against the BRI, Chinese President Xi Jinping’s pet project to further China’s global influence through investment in building infrastructure projects.

India has protested against China for constructing the US$60 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which is said to be a flagship BRI project through Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK) in violation of its sovereignty.

India has also been an outspoken critic of BRI projects, saying they should be based on generally accepted international norms, good governance and the rule of law, and follow the principles of openness, transparency and financial sustainability.

China was subsequently criticized for how BRI projects in small countries such as Sri Lanka, especially its acquisition of Hambantota on a 99-year lease as a debt swap, turned out to be debt traps, leading to deep financial crises in both small countries. .

Indian diplomats note that in addition to not participating in the three annual high-profile meetings of the Belt and Road Initiative in Beijing over the past few years, India has continued to express its opposition to it in both BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). .

US Trade Representative Katherine Tai recently called on Brazil to consider its proposal to join the BRI through an “objective lens” and “risk management.”

The Chinese Embassy in Brasilia called her remarks “irresponsible” and “disrespectful.”

China’s state-run Global Times newspaper in an editorial on Monday called Tai’s anti-BRI comments “imbued with the specter of the Monroe Doctrine.”

“Brazil does not need others to dictate with whom to cooperate or what kind of partnership to pursue, and normal economic and trade cooperation between China and Latin American countries should not be subject to control by third countries,” it said.

“The US is currently trying to build a ‘small yard and a high fence’ against China in Brazil and other Latin American countries,” the report said.

“Cooperation between China and Brazil not only serves the interests of both countries, but also meets the needs of the Global South to build a more just and equitable international economic order. Washington cannot stop this trend,” the report said.