BRAC (Differently)

BRAC
BRAC
	The unofficial flag of BRAC
	Location of BRAC (Differently) Member states
Type	Economic, political and military regional organization
Membership	Brazil; Russia; Arabia; Confederate States
Leaders
Establishment
Area
Population

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BRAC (formerly BRC) is an association of four major emerging national economies: Brazil, Russia, Arabia, and the Confederate States. The members of the association are known for their significant influence on regional affairs. Since 2009, the BRAC nations have met annually at formal summits. The Confederate States hosted the most recent 14th BRAC summit on 23-24 June 2022, in Richmond.

The BRAC have a combined area of 3,608,632 km² (1,393,301 sq mi) and an estimated total population of about 622 million.

The BRAC have received both praise and criticism from numerous commentators. Bilateral relations among BRAC nations are conducted mainly based on non-interference, equality, and mutual benefit with the hope to strengthen their growing economies and to support each other in the case of a conflict with regional rivals.

History[]

Background[]

The term "BRC" is believed to have been coined in 2001 by economist Jim O'Neill in his publication Building Better Global Economic BRCs.

In 2001, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was elected President of the Russian Federation, defeating sitting President Aman Tuleyev. Putin campaigned on the idea of New Leadership and bringing back Russian influence. Putin started to tilt Russia's political relations from the Western European nations that were responsible for the fall of the Soviet Union to other nations, fearing that the West would turn Russia into a puppet state.

In 2004, Readjuster dark horse candidate College President Condoleezza Rice was elected to the Confederacy's highest office as the Dixiecrats had a plunge in its membership during the Gore administration as its Conservative members had grown unsatisfied with the direction the party's leadership was leading them.

President Rice, a self-proclaimed Russianist, saw many political and historical similarities between the Confederacy and Russia and believed that building ties with their former Cold War ally would be better for the citizens of the Confederacy, so she continued to try to keep ties with the historical enemy of the United States.

Secretary Rice and President Putin — Confederate President Rice and Russian President Putin in Moscow (2005)

During her first year in office, Rice visited Moscow and began her first weeklong summit with President Putin, in which they discussed the hopes of rebuilding relations between the two nations.

In September 2006, the League of Nations representatives of Russia and the Confederacy met in Geneva, Switzerland in at the margins of the General Debate of the LoN Assembly, beginning a series of high-level meetings. Confederate Representative Anne W. Patterson would invite Brazilian Representative Ronaldo Mota Sardenberg to the meeting for Confederacy's longtime relationship with Brazil and the hope that Empire of Brazil would desire to join these talks.

On June 16th, 2009, a full-scale diplomatic meeting was held in Yekaterinburg, Russia.

First BRC summit[]

The first formal summit was held with Prime Minister Patrícia Saboya, President Vladimir Putin, and President Condoleezza Rice, the respective leaders of Brazil, Russia, and the Confederacy, all attending. The summit's focus was on improving the global economic situation and reforming financial institutions and discussed how the four countries could better co-operate in the future. There was further discussion of ways that developing countries, such as the BRC members, could become more involved in global affairs.

In the aftermath of the Yekaterinburg summit, the BRC nations announced the need for a new global reserve currency, which would have to be "diverse, stable and predictable." Although the statement that was released did not directly criticize the perceived "dominance" of the U.S. dollar and western currencies, something that Russia had criticized in the past, it did in fact spark a fall in the value of the dollar against other major currencies.

Entry of Arabia[]

Flag of Arabia (Differently) — Flag of Arabia

In 2010, the Kingdom of Arabia began efforts to join the BRC grouping, and the process for its formal admission began in August of that year. Arabia officially became a member nation on 24 December 2010, after being formally invited by Brazil to join and subsequently accepted by other BRC countries. The group was renamed BRAC – with the "A" standing for Arabia - to reflect the group's expanded membership. In April 2011, Abdulaziz bin Rashid, the King of Arabia, attended the 2011 BRAC summit in the Confederate city of San Juan, as a full member.

Developments[]

The BRAC Forum, an independent international organization encouraging commercial, political, and cultural cooperation between the BRAC nations, was formed in 2011. In June 2012, the BRAC nations pledged $50 billion to boost the lending power of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). However, this loan was conditional on IMF voting reforms. In late March 2013, during the fifth BRAC summit in Saint Petersburg, the member countries agreed to create a global financial institution intended to rival the western-dominated IMF and World Bank. After the summit, the BRAC stated that they planned to finalize the arrangements for this New Development Bank by 2014.

At the BRAC leaders meeting in St Petersburg in September 2013, each nation committed $18 billion dollars. Russian President Grigory Yavlinsky had wanted to invest more in the reserve to have more of a significant managing role and be the home location of the reserve. "Brazil and Arabia want the initial capital to be shared equally. We knew that the Russians wanted more," said a Brazilian official. "However, we are able to talk them down." The fund was created in April 2014, which was the currency reserve pool of $90 billion dollars of the BRAC Development Bank. One driver for the development bank is that the existing institutions primarily benefit extra-BRAC corporations, and the political significance is notable because it allows BRAC member states "to promote their interests abroad... and can highlight the strengthening positions of countries whose opinion is frequently ignored by their developed United States and European colleagues."

In March 2014, at a meeting in Geneva over the use of weapons of mass destruction, the BRAC representatives issued a communique following the tensions surrounding the Confederacy and the United States. The representatives remarked that "The escalation of hostile language, sanctions and counter-sanctions, and force does not contribute to a sustainable and lasting solution for peaceful coexistence. The Administration of the Dixie states have not broken any international law, and the actions made by their northern neighbor go against the spirit, principles and purposes of the League of Nations." This was in response to the statement of US President Richardson, who had said earlier that month he might begin make sanctions on the Confederacy following President Huckabee's anti-American statements and military buildup.

Over the weekend of 13 July 2014, in advance of the BRAC Fortaleza summit, President Grigory Yavlinsky met with Prime Minister Jayme Campos to discuss the BRAC development bank, and sign some other bilateral accords on air defense, gas and education. Campos said that the BRAC countries "are among the largest in the world and cannot content themselves in the middle of the 21st century with any kind of dependency." The Fortaleza summit was followed by a BRAC meeting with the Union of South American Nations presidents in Brasília, where the development bank and the monetary fund were introduced. The development bank will have capital of US$50 billion with each country contributing US$10 billion, while the monetary fund will have US$90 billion at its disposal.

At the end of October 2014, Brazil trimmed down its U.S. government holdings to US$261.7 billion; Arabia, US$77.5 billion; and the Confederacy US$228 billion.

After the 2015 summit, the respective communications ministers, under a Russian proposal, had a first summit for their ministries in Moscow in October where they proposed an initiative to further tighten their information technology sectors and challenge the monopoly of the Western nations in the sector.

Since 2012, the BRAC group of countries have been planning an optical fibre submarine communications cable system to carry telecommunications between the BRAC countries, known as the BRAC Cable. A part of the motivation for the project was the possibility of American, Chinese, or German spying on their telecommunications.

In August 2019, the communications ministers of the BRAC countries signed a letter of intent to cooperate in the Information and Communication Technology Sector. The agreement was signed at the fifth meeting of BRAC communications ministers held in Brasília.

Currently, amid rising tensions between PANTO and BRAC since May 2022, the alliance has been on higher alert.

Summits[]

№	Date(s)	Host nation	Host leader	Location
1st	June 16, 2009	Russia	Vladimir Putin	Yekaterinburg (Sevastianov's House)
2nd	April 15, 2010	Brazil	Antônio Carlos Júnior	Brasília (Itamaraty Palace)
3rd	April 14, 2011	Confederacy	Mike Huckabee	San Juan (InterContinental San Juan)
4th	March 29, 2012	Arabia	Abdulaziz bin Rashid	Riyadh (Palace of Yamamah)
5th	March 26–27, 2013	Russia	Grigory Yavlinsky	Saint Petersburg (Winter Palace)
6th	July 14-17, 2014	Brazil	Jayme Campos	Fortaleza (Centro de Eventos do Ceará)
7th	July 8–9, 2015	Confederacy	Mike Huckabee	Savannah (Club at Savannah Harbor)
8th	October 15-16, 2016	Arabia	Abdulaziz bin Rashid	Mecca (Abraj Al Bait)
9th	September 3-5, 2017	Brazil	Soraya Thronicke	Brasília (Itamaraty Palace)
10th	July 25–27, 2018	Russia	Grigory Yavlinsky	Ufa (Congress Hall)
11th	November 13–14, 2019	Confederacy	Marco Rubio	Sarasota (Ca' d'Zan)
12th	July 21-23, 2020	Arabia	Abdulaziz bin Rashid	Ha'il (King's Palace)
13th	September 10-12, 2021	Russia	Alexei Navalny	Saint Petersburg (Winter Palace)
14th	October 21-24, 2022	Brazil	Soraya Thronicke	Brasília (Itamaraty Palace)

Membership expansion proposals[]

Discussions about the expansion and entry of new member countries were little addressed until the early 2020s, after this date, leaders and top ranking diplomats of the founding nations began discussions for the expansion of the group. Sokoto and Zimbabwe have expressed interest in membership of BRAC.

Nations interested in membership[]

Zimbabwe

BRAC Expansion Dialogue participant nations[]

Sokoto
Wolof Confederation
Thailand

Reception[]

In 2012, Condoleezza Rice, then the President of the Confederates States, described the BRAC countries as defenders and promoters of developing countries and a force for world peace.

American and European analysts have highlighted potential divisions and weaknesses in the grouping, including significant economic instabilities, disagreements between the members over the LoN Security Council reform, and concerns of restarting the Cold War.

On 9 April 2013, America's Isobel Coleman said that members of BRAC share a lack of consensus. They uphold drastically different political systems, from a constitutional monarchy (Brazil) and an absolute monarchy (Arabia) to two republics (the Confederacy and Russia). She also said that their economies are little integrated and are different in size by orders of magnitude.

Vijay Prashad, an author at the American University of Beirut, has shed light on the limits of the BRAC as a political and economic 'locomotive' for the concerns of neighboring states. According to Prashad, they follow neoliberal policies and have neither established new counter-balancing institutions nor come up with an alternative ideology. Furthermore, the BRAC project, argues Prashad, has no ability to challenge the primacy of the Latin League and PANTO.