BRICs' ambitions, far from being dimmed, have never been abandoned and never more so than at London's G20 summit, writes Gamal Nkrumah The global economy is at a critical juncture. Brazil, Russia, India and China -- collectively known as the "BRIC" -- face the prospect of global recession just like everyone else. Yet, their perception and experience of the international financial crisis does not inhibit their determination to succeed in spite of it. They want to promote their vision of a reformed international economic order that will arise from the ashes of today's chaos. The four countries are neither Western, nor Western- oriented. Each one of them has its own clearly defined agenda. The four states see themselves as potential superpowers, and at least one of them actually was at one time a superpower. That brings in the issue of America's allies. The four BRIC powers, to varying degrees, have tremendous vested economic and political interests in cementing ties with Washington. And, yet Washington views them all with some degree of suspicion. India is the least suspicious politically as far as Washington is concerned. And, Brazil too, is innocent enough in Western eyes -- indeed of all the BRIC powers, Brazil is the most similar to the United States in ethnic composition, racial make-up and pulsating multiculturalism. Like America, Brazil is a child of all nations -- or all continents, one should expound. Russia presents a paradox, and is a potential rival as far as Washington is concerned. Note that in the past week alone, four ex-secretaries of state made their way to Moscow, where angels fear to tread. Russia traditionally was an empire, and much like America has been most reluctant to relinquish its imperialistic past. As for China, it is obviously the most problematic of the BRICs as far as Washington is concerned. Not only is Beijing the sole one-party avowedly Communist BRIC, but it also has the most economic clout over Washington. Ominously 2009 marks the 20th anniversary of the crackdown in Tiananmen Square, and democracy is translated into radically different concepts in Washington and Beijing. High-ranking officials of the Communist Party of China accompanied Chinese President Hu Jintao to London. Indeed, the number of Chinese ministers and diplomats was nothing short of colossal. The staggering coterie of Chinese luminaries included Vice Prime Minister Wang Qishan, Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, Finance Minister Xie Xuren, Minister of Commerce Chen Deming, and the Chinese Central Bank Governor Zhou Xiaochuan were in attendance. G20 leaders scramble to forge alliances with the BRICs, and the quirks of the global financial crisis eggs them on. These factors will no doubt come into full play at the G20 summit in London today. Even though 2009 promises to be a traumatic year for the BRICs, it still does not dim expectations for a brighter tomorrow. Take China, for instance. Its foreign currency reserves, the world's largest, now stand at $2 trillion. China has dramatically increased its holdings of US treasuries in recent years, relegating Japan to second place. China is currently the biggest holder of US treasuries and is poised to take control of America's purse strings as chief exporter to the US and major investor in and guarantor of the American economy. China is supplanting Japan as the world's second largest economy. And yet China, unlike the US and Japan, is a developing country -- as are the other BRICs with the possible exception of Russia. It is too early to say who will emerge as the definitive winners and shakers of today's London G20 summit. What is certain is that the BRIC powers are not that interested in the Wall Street bailout, with the possible exception of China, perhaps? China is making capital out of Marx, or is it Mao? India is no longer obsessive about its founder guru, Gandhi. Russia has lost interest in Lenin and is nonchalant about Gorbachev. Labour is no longer inextricably intertwined with Lula in Brazil. Caveats aside, London has no discernible plot. Yes, there is expected to be much talk about hard times, but London is destined to be a talking shop like a host of summits before it. There will be talk about the stimulus, the new buzzword, I suppose. The world's economy is contracting at an eerily alarming rate. Yet, the BRICs are not that concerned about tomorrow, they are confident about the future. To cut a long story short, the future is theirs. Certainly that goes for Brazil, China and India. With Russia, nothing is straightforward. Russian President Dmitri Medvedev will stand before the cameras in London, but it is his American counterpart Barack Obama who will steal the show. Russia may not have much leverage over America the way China has. Albeit it has somewhat more leverage over Europe. Among BRICs, Russia is markedly more dependent on foreign investments than the other three. Participants at the London summit might well contemplate the cathartic economic changes that challenge the Western world rather than dwell on the potential of the medium powers, but the 2009 G20 summit is not exactly about the latter. Argentina and Australia, South Africa and Saudi Arabia, and Turkey, too, might be in attendance. But anyone who is anyone, who is not eyeing Obama will be scrutinising the spiraling powers of the BRICs. To some, this caveat about the desirability of emulating the elephants may seem an overreaction to their weightiness at the London summit, but then what is a mere summit meeting when the destinies of peoples are at stake? Full of angst, NATO will celebrate its 60th anniversary soon after the G20 summit, and Russia will be the only BRIC even remotely concerned with that event. The other three are embroiled in their own specific spheres of influence. To make matters absolutely clear -- just like tempestuous and titanic slumdogs -- BRICs are so easy to adore, so difficult to truly admire.
