Russia should not encourage Saudi Arabia to join BRICS

Saudi Arabia is going to hold an anti-Russian conference on Ukraine. The Saudis want to join the BRICS, but Moscow needs to wait a little with the approval.

Photo: watanserb.com

Anti-Russian agenda of the conference in Jeddah

Invitations to the conference in Jeddah on August 5-6 were sent out to nearly 30 countries, including Russia's BRICS partners such as China, India, Brazil, and South Africa. The conference, the organisers say, is aimed at gaining support for so-called Zelensky's peace plan that was unveiled last December during the Ukrainian president's visit to the United States.

The plan excludes any negotiations with Russia and provides for the complete withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukrainian territories including Crimea within the 1991 borders. Zelenskiy also insists that Russia must pay reparations to Ukraine, whereas its leadership must face a trial for "war crimes" before negotiations could take place.

A number of countries immediately refused the invitation. Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said that such negotiations are untenable without Russia.

Brazil downgrades representation

The Russians, of course, are interested in Russia's BRICS partners, as the bloc is trying to resist US globalism and is developing a joint currency that could replace the US dollar.

It was said that Brazilian President Jose Inacio Lula da Silva was not going to the meeting. Brazil will be represented by presidential foreign policy adviser Celso Amorim (via video link), TASS reports. Amorim reminded at a meeting with journalists that it was not possible to reach a consensus on Ukraine at a similar meeting in Copenhagen as Kyiv wanted to discuss only its own peace formula there.

"Russia's security interests cannot be ignored. They are real. Or are you trying to provoke Russia?" Amorim wondered.

As for China, its representatives did not appear at the meeting in Copenhagen. They may ignore the meeting in Saudi Arabia as well, although Western analysts believe that the Chinese delegation will attend the event as Saudi Arabia is a close partner of China.

Reasons for refusing or downgrading the representation of the countries of the Global South:

• Zelensky's plan does not hold water, and everyone knows that, why waste time?
• they want to avoid US pressure behind the scenes as White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan is expected to attend;
• everyone has their own problems and Ukraine is no priority. Brazil is hosting its international Amazon forum these days, and Lula is attending it.

Saudi Arabia cooperates with Americans

Saudi Arabia looks like a foreign body in this celebration of death for Ukraine, as Riyadh recently applied to join the BRICS.

Analysts believe that the countries of the Global South will try to convince the West that further attempts to propagate the Ukrainian agenda are unrealistic. In this case, however, Lula would certainly go, and so would the Chinese.

According to the second version, Western countries, together with the countries of the Global South, may try to force Zelensky to give up all his demands on Russia.

"They will throw it (the plan) out the window," retired US intelligence officer Scott Ritter said.

One may suggest that everything has already been decided with the Americans. If so, the Saudis will undoubtedly win as peacekeepers with neutral wording in the conference resolution.

If Zelensky's plan is left to move forward, then Saudi Arabia's entry into the BRICS should be delayed. Oil affairs within OPEC+ will not suffer in any way: Saudi Arabia, no less than the Russian Federation, wants to maintain stable oil prices.

BRICS already has India being obsessed with the idea of outstripping China with the help of the United States.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised Zelensky to "do his best" to start peace talks with the Russian Federation. Supplies of cheap oil to India from Russia started declining immediately afterwards. It is important to support Moscow and not be ashamed of it — this what the Kremlin rhetoric should be about these days. Moscow has its leverage: food, fuel, energy,

During a meeting with representatives of African countries in June, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia and Ukraine could have reached an agreement during the talks in Istanbul last year, but Ukraine suddenly decided to pull out of the talks under pressure from the West.

The ball is on Kyiv's side, Putin said, but one should take the new reality into account anyway: Russia has taken four regions of former Ukraine according to the "law of the winner in the war." If Ukraine is not happy with it, Russia will prove its point on the battlefield.