As the summit for the anti-American BRICS countries opens, “de-dollarization” continues to be a priority for BRICS. That means that powerful countries including China, Russia, and Brazil aim to move away from the U.S. dollar’s status as world reserve currency in an effort that could spell serious trouble for the already-weakening dollar.
Russian state media is, of course, untrustworthy on some points, but it is likely to be accurate on what Russian dictator Vladimir Putin’s priorities are because it’s a mouthpiece for his government. And Sputnik International’s coverage of the BRICS leaders’ opening speeches on August 22 repeatedly mentioned “de-dollarization” or a move away from the U.S. dollar as a priority for the BRICS meeting.
It’s clear from Sputnik’s piece and previous comments that Putin wants “de-dollarization,” and the CCP has spent enough time rejoicing over what it calls the crumbling of U.S. dollar “hegemony” that China’s position is pretty clear too. Brazil has also expressed interest in such a movement, however.
”President of the Federative Republic of Brazil Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva highlighted the pace of BRICS economic growth in his speech, drawing attention to the fact that the group has already surpassed the Group of Seven (G7) in terms of GDP, based on purchasing power parity (PPP),” Sputnik announced. It added, “BRICS is considering the creation of ‘a new reference unit’ to shield their trade from major reserve currencies volatility….The Brazilian president also highlighted the need to switch to local currencies in mutual settlements to ensure fairer and more predictable trade.” What exactly does this mean? Sputnik helpfully clarified. Keep in mind as you read that Lula has previously expressed support for de-dollarization:
Lula’s notion is a reference to the idea of the group’s common currency that got its second wind after the US weaponization of the dollar over the Russian special military operation in Ukraine, as well as the Federal Reserve’s aggressive interest rate hikes which shattered the world’s economy hurting vulnerable global borrowers.
But Russia seems particularly interested in this “de-dollarization” effort. Putin highlighted this aim in his speech to the BRICS summit, according to Sputnik:
Having noted that BRICS has already outpaced G7 in terms of global economic growth (PPP), Putin stressed the group has taken course on de-dollarization, adding that the share of the dollar settlements within the group in 2022 fell to 28.7%. The Russian president highlighted that BRICS countries are increasingly shifting to national currencies.
That wasn’t the last time Sputnik returned to the topic.
BRICS is an acronym for Brazil, Russian Federation, India, China, and South Africa, which together represent over 40% of the world’s population and over 31% of the GDP. The nations are expected to discuss the expansion of BRICS – as more than 40 states expressed desire to join the club with over 20 countries having officially applied for BRICS membership – the switch from the US dollar to national currencies in mutual financial operations, new business opportunities, infrastructure development and global geopolitics.
So what does all this mean? The governments of Russia and China are America’s biggest enemies in the world. They do want to undermine and weaken the U.S. and have made that abundantly clear. Unfortunately, Joe Biden’s own policies also weakened the dollar, which exacerbated rather than helped the situation. All of which is to say that de-dollarization, which is being brought about by a variety of countries and causes, is a very dangerous trend for America. This is especially true since the Chinese yuan seems to be the current most likely candidate for replacing the U.S. dollar if the dollar really does fail as world reserve currency.
The Chinese Communist Party and Putin are aiming to undermine the U.S. dollar, and they apparently see this BRICS meeting as a key step in achieving that goal. The U.S. had better wake up to the danger before it’s too late.
