Greece
Source: moderndiplomacy.eu

Since its inception with the original five countries BRICS has been beset by questions about its ability to truly bridge the gap between its members.

With its expansion to BRICS+ from 2024, the organization that was once conceived as a pan-regional economic cooperation group is increasingly expected to become a new pole of power, challenging the Western-led order. However, behind the bold statements about “de-Westernization” or “multipolarization of the world,” BRICS is facing a little-discussed reality that could undermine the foundation of cooperation in the long term: deep religious differences and secularization within the group.

Since its inception with the original five countries of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, BRICS has been beset by questions about its ability to truly bridge the gap between its members, which have very different political systems, development models, and geostrategic interests. The expansion into BRICS+, which includes countries such as Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, and more recently Saudi Arabia and the UAE—all of which have strong Islamic identities—has made that question even more pressing.

On the surface, the BRICS appear to be actively seeking or creating a more equitable world order, free from the influence of the dollar and Bretton Woods institutions such as the IMF and the World Bank that the US and the West have backed. But deep down, this is a group of countries that are increasingly defining themselves based on their particular national, religious, and cultural identities. This represents a trend that goes against the minimum requirements of an effective alliance: consensus on values and governance models. In Western alliances such as the EU or NATO, one religion or just one branch of that religion is accepted, and the alliance will not have members of other religions.

Look at the new BRICS members Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt, all of whom have tended to project a foreign policy based on their Islamic identity—albeit from very different sects and approaches. Meanwhile, India under Prime Minister Narendra Modi has increasingly embraced a Hindu nationalist identity, with controversial policies regarding the treatment of its Muslim community. Hindu-Muslim tensions, a geopolitical scar that dates back to the partition of India and Pakistan, have not abated, and many Muslim countries—particularly Iran—have not hesitated to criticize New Delhi over Kashmir or religious discrimination.

For its part, Russia is using Orthodoxy to strengthen its post-Soviet identity, while China is pushing a policy of absolute secularization, even repressing Muslim communities such as the Uyghurs in Xinjiang or the Dalai Lamas in Tibet. This conflict is not only about internal policy but can completely spill over into foreign policy discussions within BRICS+, especially when member countries want to incorporate cultural and religious factors into shaping the new order.

Religious differences are not a new barrier in international politics. But what makes them so worrying in the case of BRICS is the lack of an effective intra-bloc mechanism for dealing with them. There is no dispute resolution mechanism, no charter of shared values, and most importantly, no commitment to sharing security risks—all of which makes BRICS highly vulnerable to paralysis if a systemic religious conflict erupts among its members.

In their joint statements, BRICS often emphasizes multilateralism, respect for identity, and non-interference. But this is also the trap that makes it difficult for the organization to achieve deep integration. If each country acts according to its own set of values and considers those religious values to be sacrosanct, BRICS will have a hard time coming up with truly unifying initiatives—let alone building an attractive alternative order.

A recent example is the divergent attitudes of the BRICS countries towards the wars in Gaza and Ukraine. While Iran and Egypt have taken strong religious and moral positions against Israel, India and Brazil have taken a relatively neutral stance. Russia has supported Hamas as an indirect way of opposing the West, while China has preferred to play the role of mediator. Each country has a different calculation, but this sharp division raises questions about the ability of the BRICS to form a common voice, especially on sensitive issues with religious elements.

Religion can also be an obstacle to building a common financial system. If the BRICS common currency is designed on a secular basis, it may face resistance from Muslim countries that want to incorporate Shariah financial principles. Conversely, if it incorporates a religious element, countries like China and India will certainly oppose it. This makes the dream of building a “non-dollar ecosystem” vulnerable to a cultural-religious tug-of-war before it meets economic barriers.

In addition, BRICS was once expected to represent the Global South, where developing countries could have a say and shape the rules of the game. But differences in religion, value systems, and views on international order make it difficult for the group to reach a true “alliance.”

The only common point today is that opposition to US and Western influence may not be enough to maintain lasting cohesion without common principles of intra-bloc cooperation, especially on respecting religious diversity and not politicizing identity.

If BRICS continues to expand without clarifying its “core values” or developing mechanisms to address differences, especially religious ones, it will be difficult for the organization to go beyond flashy statements. These simmering divisions may not explode immediately, but they will gradually erode the feasibility of any effort at deeper cooperation.

Iran
Source: www.tasnimnews.com

TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The Iranian Navy will join other BRICS member states in a major multinational naval exercise hosted by South Africa.
The preparatory briefing session for the BRICS joint naval drill was held in Cape Town with representatives from Russia, China, South Africa, Ethiopia, Indonesia, and Iran in attendance.
Captain Hassan Maqsoudlou, commander of the First Naval District of the Iranian Navy, represented Iran at the meeting. He said the Iranian combat vessels will actively take part in the exercise, which will be staged under the title “Will for Peace.”
Highlighting the significance of BRICS’ economic and strategic cooperation, the Iranian commander noted that the joint naval exercise aims to strengthen unity and solidarity among the friendly nations while ensuring maritime security as a foundation for global economic prosperity.
He further stressed that the Iranian Navy has for years been at the forefront of confronting piracy and threats to international shipping security, while consistently carrying the message of peace and friendship to other nations.
The exercise comes amid broader defense engagements related to South Africa’s G20 Presidency. The country’s Department of Defense has been in talks with its counterparts to postpone the trilateral naval exercise originally scheduled for November 2025 between South Africa, Russia, and China. This drill, which takes place biennially, represents the third such iteration among BRICS partners, with China set to host the current cycle.
According to official statements, the postponement discussions are aimed at avoiding overlap with the logistical, security, and organizational demands of South Africa’s G20 Presidency. Pretoria has emphasized that its participation in such exercises is part of a wider policy of fostering bilateral and multilateral relations.

Russia
Source: brics-plus-analytics.org

A summit like no other: BRICS set to discuss trade
The upcoming BRICS online summit scheduled to take place on September 8, 2025 is set to focus on trade policy issues and in line with the media reports it is expected that the heads of BRICS states will deliberate such issues as promoting multilateralism in mutual trade and reforming the WTO. We have already covered extensively the need for greater BRICS coordination in the trade sphere, including the expediency of creating a BRICS bloc in the WTO[1]. Indeed, the concepts of BRICS+ and BRICS++ developed in the beginning of 2017 were both based on the promotion of trade liberalization across BRICS core members and their regional partners[2]. Given this year’s circumstances, in particular the chairing by Brazil of both BRICS and COP30, we believe there is scope to focus the trade liberalization efforts on the environmental goods and services, thus strengthening the nexus across the Global South between growth, trade and sustainable development. We thus proceed to explore the possible modalities of integrating the BRICS+ COP commitments and environmental policies into the trade liberalization agenda that may be discussed by BRICS leaders.  
Some of the more obvious measures related to co-integrating BRICS trade liberalization with the environmental agenda would be to reduce import tariffs and non-tariff barriers on sustainable goods. This may be particularly critical for agricultural goods in view of the sector’s importance for the economies of the Global South and most notably Africa. Another focus area may be the reduction of barriers on goods and services related to solar/wind technology and equipment, which may provide an important impulse to sustainable development across the Global South. There may also be scope to explore the possibilities for bringing down tariffs on EVs and their components, while also expanding the possibilities for technology transfer in the sphere of sustainable technologies across the BRICS+ space. Scaling back subsidies and industrial policy measures in areas that have high carbon footprints could be another area to explore.
Such measures may quickly run into difficulties, however, without agreed verification systems for sustainable goods and services. BRICS+ members will also need to conduct wide-ranging harmonization measures with respect to their country-level and regional environmental standards. In the investment sphere, BRICS economies may employ the recently created platform for special economic zones (SEZs) to provide simplified market access for environmental goods and services. In the financial sphere, the New Development Bank (NDB) could introduce a new category of loans that targets both high environmental standards/sustainability and greater trade creation across BRICS+/NDB+ partners. This would be similar to the practices of the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) that closely tracks not only the contribution of the investment projects to improving the environment, but also its economic integration impact for EDB’s member countries.  
As discussed in one of our recent posts[3], there is also substantial scope for linking the COP commitments across BRICS+ with the coordinated measures of BRICS economies to boost economic growth (coordinated stimulus package). This would render future growth in the Global South more eco-friendly and sustainable, while also providing an important demonstration effect with respect to other regional blocs and platforms. Such a coordinated economic stimulus from BRICS+ that is also geared towards environmentalism and sustainability would represent a back-up option to the stimuli coming from the G20 in case they fail to materialize (possibly due to lingering North-South divides). The same back-up function may be performed by BRICS in case coordinated stimuli are not launched by the G7 group – such discussions have taken place on multiple occasions among the G7 members[4]. Given the growing weight of BRICS+ in the global economy, coordinated stimuli that are well-integrated with the BRICS COP agenda could deliver the dual benefit of better quantity (growth) and quality (sustainability) in the expansion of the world economy going forward.
In the end, the trade liberalization agenda in the upcoming BRICS discussion may feature a wide range of issues, including the reform of the WTO (with the regional integration blocs working more closely with this global trade organization), the formation of a BRICS bloc within the WTO, the lifting of mutual trade barriers (particularly those that have not been resolved via the WTO dispute settlement mechanism), advancing the WTO accession of BRICS core members (such as Ethiopia and Iran) as well as BRICS partners (Uzbekistan). The most important innovation that BRICS could bring to the table would be a close link forged between their trade liberalization impulses, their COP/environmental initiatives and coordinated measures to boost economic growth. This year presents a unique opportunity for BRICS to co-integrate the COP environmental commitments/agenda into their trade and broader economic cooperation initiatives.
[1] https://brics-plus-analytics.org/reforming-the-wto-what-role-for-the-global-south/
[2] https://valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/re-thinking-the-brics/
[3] https://brics-plus-analytics.org/a-coordinated-stimulus-from-brics-could-this-be-the-perfect-moment/
[4] https://www.euractiv.com/section/economy-jobs/news/g7-countries-postpone-coordinated-action-against-coronavirus-impact/
https://www.iai.it/sites/default/files/iairp_25.pdf

Yarolav Lissovolik, Founder, BRICS+ Analytics

Russia
Source: brics-plus-analytics.org

SCO summit charts new development trajectories
The SCO summit in China’s Tianjin is over and the final declaration of the summit unveils a number of crucial trajectories in the development of this regional organization. Perhaps the most important implication of the summit in China is the further transformation of the SCO into an economic bloc that becomes the focal point of the economic integration impulses of the Global South in Eurasia. A key decision in this respect is the establishment of the SCO development bank that is expected to work closely together with other financial institutions of Eurasia, most notably the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB). Our vision of greater alignment in the evolution of the platforms of the Global South, most notably the SCO and BRICS, has been largely vindicated based on the main decisions unveiled at the SCO summit.
As we have noted in our recent publication, the dynamics in the development of the SCO regional bloc is increasingly aligned with that of BRICS[1]. A key synchronicity in the operation of both blocs is that they are in expansion mode, with an increasing correlation in membership and outreach formats. In particular, we note that the SCO+ format conducted by China this year was similar to the BRICS+ outreach exercise in 2022 – both included a record number of economies outside of the blocs’ core and also featured representatives from the key regional organizations. In the case of this year’s SCO summit, the SCO+ outreach exercise featured representatives of the Eurasian Economic Union and ASEAN[2] – thus pointing to the continued progression of the Global South towards building a SCO-EAEU-ASEAN cooperative triangle in Eurasia.
Another point of greater alignment between the BRICS and the SCO was the decision at the summit to combine the status of “observer” and “dialogue partner” into a single status of an “SCO partner” – in line with the current modalities adopted within BRICS, whereby together with core economies of the bloc there is a partnership belt. As we have pointed out in our earlier publications, the BRICS and the SCO now are broadly commensurate in terms of the size of the core and the partnership circle (the SCO currently has a somewhat wider circle of partner economies), with the summit approving Laos as a dialogue partner of the SCO regional bloc.
Most importantly, however, in line with our assessment this year[3] and calls in the preceding years[4], the SCO members agreed to establish an SCO development bank. The creation of this development institution expands the array of financing vehicles for economic development in Eurasia and makes the emergence of a platform for the regional development banks of Eurasia and the Global South more likely in the coming years. The SCO development bank is likely to work with regional institutions such as the Eurasian Development Bank in financing connectivity/infrastructure projects, with further cooperation and co-financing of such projects likely to come from the BRICS New Development Bank (NDB). For more on the potential modalities of the SCO Development Bank see our recent publication: BRICS+ Analytics. “A new regional development bank for Eurasia”. July 22, 2025[5].
In the end, the SCO summit in Tianjin marks a key watershed in the development of the SCO platform and the broader economic cooperation efforts of the Global South economies in Eurasia. It advances further the institutionalization of the Global South and SCO economic cooperation via the establishment of the SCO bank. It also further strengthens the positive impulses of closer economic ties between the two largest BRICS economies, namely India and China – as we have noted in the past, a closer economic partnership between China and India is the best-case scenario for the future of BRICS and the Global South[6]. Perhaps most importantly, the summit sends a broader message to the global community about the principles of a more inclusive and multipolar global governance[7] as reflected in the statement by China’s leader Xi Jinping. These principles may provide the guidance and the momentum for a revitalized economic globalization effort in which the Global South is to play a key role[8].
[1] https://brics-plus-analytics.org/forging-greater-alignment-between-brics-and-the-sco/
[2] https://asean.org/secretary-general-of-asean-participates-in-the-sco-plus-meeting-2025-in-tianjin-china/
[3] https://brics-plus-analytics.org/a-new-regional-development-bank-for-eurasia/
[4] https://news.cgtn.com/news/2024-07-01/SCO-to-drive-economic-cooperation-of-developing-countries-in-Eurasia-1uSqjifTTYA/p.html
[5] https://brics-plus-analytics.org/a-new-regional-development-bank-for-eurasia/
[6] https://brics-plus-analytics.org/a-best-case-scenario-for-the-global-south/
[7] https://english.news.cn/20250901/af51481fbbd0452781e81f7c6ebd3d33/c.html
[8] https://brics-plus-analytics.org/relaunching-globalization-a-paradigm-shift-for-brics/

Russia
Source: russiancouncil.ru

Naseem Javed's Blog
Why Are Population-Rich Nations Now Conducting the New Global Economic Symphony?

Why are the population-rich nations (PRN) conducting the global economic symphony while the knowledge-rich nations (KRN), which are primarily out of tune, seem to have lost their melodies?
What has happened over the past few decades that has allowed knowledge-rich nations, predominantly in the West, to fall behind the population-rich nations, mainly in Asia? What are their respective powers and weaknesses, and who is more trade commerce savvy, and who is more swayed into Fakery and Wokeism?

Over the last decade, Expothon has highlighted critical issues regarding how the Knowledge-Rich Nations (KRNs) of the West have failed to measure real growth accurately. Captivated by social media and misled by fake news, they became intoxicated by the illusion of success, believing that numerous moving pictures and flickering lights equated to productivity. Without entrepreneurial spirit, which is the cornerstone of all growth, there can be no actual productivity, performance, or profitability. To address these matters, deep immersion visits to Asian economies are essential.
The Anti-Job Creation Syndrome: Investigate why the Anti-Job Creation Syndrome has now visibly hindered job creation in Western economies, the education system has missed almost all its targets, and the mythical powers of AI remain untested. AI is superb software, and with zero human intelligence inside, it is a good actor.
Despite the challenges, the next 1,500 days hold immense potential. AI, a superb software, will not only replace a billion senior management roles but also orient, retrain, and recreate a billion super-skilled individuals to manage the future paradigm positions. It will solve high-priced senior management challenges in seconds for cents, while also uplifting and training a billion entrepreneurial job seeker mindsets. This is a future where nations with specific skills and open to job-creator mindsets can mobilize to meet these challenges.
Human Intelligence will only make artificial ignorance shine.
The notion that AI alone can forge prosperous economies is as ludicrous as tossing a toolbox into a jungle and expecting a car assembly line a decade later.
Humanity's progress hinges on critical thinking, the root of all technological leaps. No AI growth is possible without a population trained to optimize productivity, performance, and profitability. This underscores the integral role each individual plays in their own mental power in the process of economic growth.
Forget MBAs: Study How Communist China is Succeeding
The USA created the first, largest, and most successful agro-industrial nation long before economic theories became popular. Today, communist China is the world's largest producer of almost everything and the largest entrepreneurial country, operating under a communist system.
The West must not become communist; instead, it should study different systems, especially its own economic nobility, with its prizes, which have now become a questionable performance. It's crucial to study China, India, and Asia with an open mind, as this open-mindedness is key to adapting to the changing global economic landscape.
The Divides: There is no single country, small or superpower, that can rule the world, in any shape or form. Many countries are global leaders in certain aspects, characteristics, and performances, but no matter what, controlling the world, subjugating humankind, and possessing all the world's resources is impossible.
Understanding the Global Mood: Gone are the days when 'national public opinion' drove internal national politics; it is no longer, as it is now, the 'global-public opinion,' like an umbrella that opens and shuts with or without rain or sunshine but follows global winds of social justice and fairness. Unless there is proven mastery of national and 'global public opinion,' nations, often misled by their own miscalculation, cheerfully convince themselves of the popularity of national public opinion, but are still in denial of why the global public opinion about them is still just the opposite.
The world is the most fascinating assembly of people, cultures, traditions, and now, as billions are exposed on a personal level, their traits, mentalities, and actions are cataloged by social media and individual expressions. The old or new world order would make no difference, as the foundation of world order will shift from a 'seek and destroy' mentality to more towards 'collaborate, align and build grassroots prosperity'
Why is New Thinking So Offensive? The urgency of the global age demands immediate global age audits to balance the circumnavigations of abstract ideas. Humankind just defeated Fakery and Wokeism. Soon, the "seek and destroy" doctrine will end and may become a tattoo on the forehead of its followers.
Warnings: The First Industrial Revolution of Mind: The first industrial revolution of mind will become the new standards for the nations to acquire special skills with the use of AI, as in open space on tactical battle fields of commerce, it will be the 'mentality of performance,' leaving behind the 'physicality of work' and engaging with the first industrial revolution of the mind, forget about the most expected 4th Industrial Revolution which never came... count the next 1500 days when the world of 2030 speaks a different key words on economic survival: The only landmark and worthy achievement of the nations of the day.
What Can KRN Not Achieve Against PRN?
One: While KRN may not be able to match the population size of PRN, it can excel in trade by offering solid experiences in management, organizational structuring, and ideas for global expansion.
Two: KRN cannot fully adopt PRN's cultural sizes and divides, but it can blend and integrate with an open mind, embracing a global vision of diversity and inclusion.
Three: Although KRN cannot scale to match PRN's sizes and volumes, it can provide sharper skills in quality production and long-term expansion strategies.
Four: While KRN may not fully align with PRN's desires and goals, it can present global ideas and examine business modeling and global image programs for mutual benefits.
Unlimited Jobs: Organize SME Oceans: Seven Stages
Observe how remote workers gradually transition to self-employment.
Self-employed individuals begin to identify who the job creators are.
These job creators start small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
SME Oceans allow supportive environments for them to grow.
Only in such vast oceans can Godzilla-size global giants emerge.
Large SME programs must start with job creators, not job seekers.
Every country can mobilize entrepreneurship on a national scale.
AI: The Steering Wheel for Job Creators: AI is a flying carpet for job creators and entrepreneurial mindsets. AI is not like a car engine; it's more like a steering wheel. A car mechanic with a job-seeker mindset will examine the car engine, assess all risks involved, classify them, and rank them to address at least one risk for every situation.
On the other hand, a lemonade stand founder with a job-creator mindset would see 100 possibilities for how this steering wheel can promote their lemonade business at trade shows, sell more lemonade, and one day grow to the size of Coca-Cola. Every country needs millions of lemonade stands, not Ivy League degrees for job seekers.
Study how AI will empower hundreds of millions of SMEs to transform economies, fueling the "National Mobilization of Entrepreneurialism", a global movement to unleash grassroots innovation. Learn more at expothon.com.
The Job-Seeker Trap:
Economic theorems cannot create jobs, nor can they rescue trapped governments. Discover job creators who built the USA over a century ago and now thrive in China, India, and beyond. Job seekers fear other job seekers, but why?
Western economies, knowledge-rich nations, have lost ground to population-rich nations over recent decades. Why? Policymakers must examine this to act effectively. The world has advanced: Only grassroots prosperity, driven by job-creating mindsets that build oceans of SMEs, gives birth to Godzilla-sized global giants, and nowhere else. The West missed the boat, a deep study of 'anti-job creation syndrome' explains.
It's established:
Job-seeker mindsets cannot create jobs.
It's proven: 99% of economic mindsets are job seekers.
It's evident: 99% of free economies are led by job seekers.
It questions leadership to ignore such a visible shift.
AI's Entrepreneurial Dance: It's not about who controls AI, as it's impossible to maintain control over it. Nor is it about who has the smartest brain. It's about global-scale entrepreneurial skills. The world's booming economies are thriving on entrepreneurship. Why do some embrace anti-job-creation syndrome? What matters is when entrepreneurial mindsets take the lead. When AI partners with entrepreneurship, it sparks extraordinary gains in the marketplace.
The Future: Job Creators Lead. The prime dancer at the Silicon Valley fanfare was "software," but it stepped back; job seekers made way for job-creator mindsets to take the lead. This is where technology stands today. The "National Mobilization of Entrepreneurialism" calls for bold action; hence, entrepreneurs and policymakers must harness AI to build thriving SME ecosystems. Join the movement.
Bright Growing Nations vs. Deeply Dark Debt-Driven Economies
Growing nations are mostly in less debt, while others are deeply dark, debt-driven economies, yet they still convince the world of their illusions of being economically wealthy superpowers. Any small, tiny business knows what drives an enterprise directly into bankruptcy. Study the 21 Pillars of Nouveau Rationalism
The West has unequivocally forgotten a crucial aspect of transforming economic thinking into entrepreneurialism. The books and number games of economics, without this shift, have no value in productivity generation. The education system, in this context, has failed them, stripping them of confidence and burdening them with education debt.
The Global Narrative: PRN leads the march
Spin the globe, and wherever it halts, the narrative is straightforward: Population-rich nations now wield the baton of global economic destiny, their vast, vibrant populations transformed into entrepreneurial dynamos, each citizen a trading post via mobile connectivity, orchestrating a crescendo of grassroots prosperity.
Knowledge-rich nations, once titans of intellectual supremacy, stumble in a dissonant fog, their outdated models—clinging to mega-technologies and bureaucratic inertia—crumbling under the weight of their hubris.
Population-rich nations, once cursed to feed hungry masses, now harness a billion new entrepreneurs across Asia, chilling the corridors of Knowledge-Rich Nations' chambers of commerce and trade associations, who watch helplessly as their SME bases erode, and middle classes vanish.
Knowledge-rich nations' costly education systems churn out job seekers, not job creators, while Population-Rich Nations' pragmatic tech and low-cost brilliance fuel an industrial revolution of the mind. Without bold new discussions, Knowledge-Rich Nations risk fading into economic irrelevance as their once-mighty knowledge becomes a free-flowing commodity, outpaced by the relentless drive of Population-Rich Nations.
The world stage is set for Population-Rich Nations to lead as Knowledge-Rich Nations scramble for plans, their silence a stark contrast to the vibrant, entrepreneurial legato of the rising global south.
Where Population-Rich Nations Will Help Knowledge-Rich Nations
One: Entrepreneurial Infusion: The emergence of billions of new entrepreneurs in population-rich nations offers Knowledge-Rich Nations a lifeline, sharing agile and low-cost business models to revitalize stagnant small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This fosters cross-border collaborations that spark innovation and revive economic vibrancy in struggling knowledge-based economies.
Two: Demographic Synergy: Population-rich nations' young, skilled workforces can fill Knowledge-Rich Nations' aging labor gaps, providing dynamic talent pools via entrepreneurial visa programs, enabling Knowledge-Rich Nations to harness demographic dividends and boost productivity in high-value sectors.
Three: Pragmatic Tech Transfer: The mastery of affordable, practical technologies by population-rich nations can guide Knowledge-Rich Nations away from manipulative mega-tech, equipping their SMEs with cost-effective tools to compete globally, thereby enhancing efficiency and market reach.
Four: Market Expansion: The vast consumer bases of population-rich nations offer Knowledge-Rich Nations new markets for high-value exports, encouraging partnerships that leverage the scale of population-rich nations and the expertise of knowledge-rich nations, creating mutually beneficial trade ecosystems.
Five: Cultural Exchange: The diverse, global-age mindsets of population-rich nations inspire Knowledge-Rich Nations to embrace inclusivity, fostering open economic dialogues that break down bureaucratic silos and spark creative solutions to shared global challenges.
How Knowledge-Rich Nations Can Still Stay in the Global Race
One: Upskill Workforces: Knowledge-rich nations must invest in lifelong learning, retraining workers with global-age skills to match the agility of Population-Rich Nations, ensuring competitiveness in high-value, innovative sectors despite demographic declines.
Two: Foster Entrepreneurialism: Knowledge-rich nations should launch visa programs and incubators to attract entrepreneurs from population-rich nations, revitalizing SMEs and creating job creators, not just job seekers, to rebuild economic dynamism.
Three: Adopt Pragmatic Tech: Knowledge-rich nations must shift from data manipulation to value-driven technologies, empowering SMEs with affordable tools to compete with Population-Rich Nations' low-cost, high-impact innovations.
Four: Reform Education: Knowledge-rich nations need to overhaul their costly business schools, prioritizing entrepreneurial mindsets over resume-building and aligning curricula with real-world needs to produce leaders of a global age.
Five: Global Partnerships: Knowledge-rich nations can form strategic alliances with Population-Rich Nations, leveraging their intellectual capital to co-develop high-value products, ensuring relevance in a Population-Rich Nations-dominated economic landscape.
In the Grand Orchestra of Global Economics
In the grand orchestra of global economics, Population-Rich Nations now play the leading melody, their vibrant, entrepreneurial legions—each a mobile trading post—composing a symphony of grassroots prosperity that reverberates across continents, leaving Knowledge-Rich Nations in a silent, discordant struggle, their once-mighty scores of intellectual supremacy torn asunder by the free flow of knowledge and the weight of bureaucratic inertia.
Global Challenge and Summit Invitation
Decades ago, Expothon Worldwide, with prophetic clarity, sounded the clarion call for a National Mobilization of Entrepreneurialism, urging nations to harness SME-driven revolutions. Yet, international economic institutes, ensconced in their ivory towers, shunned this bold crescendo, fearing its disruption of Western-centric dogmas. Today, Population-Rich Nations' billion new entrepreneurs march, seeking fertile grounds, while Knowledge-Rich Nations, bereft of plans, face a reckoning.
Expothon vision, ignored by rigid economic academia, heralded this tectonic shift, proving that entrepreneurialism, not conformity, drives progress. Institutes' silence stems from their entanglement in complex debt games and psycho-crypto escapism, unable to fathom the primal force of Population-Rich Nations' industrial revolution of the mind, a legacy of diversity and pragmatism that now commands the global stage, leaving Knowledge-Rich Nations to scramble for relevance.
Global trade pivots on this divide as illuminated nations, radiant with entrepreneurial energy, outshine dark-in-debt nations mired in financial chaos and bureaucratic malaise. The silent global political economy, entangled in debt and crypto escapism, sinks Knowledge-Rich Nations, blind to the SME-driven revolutions reshaping commerce. From this upheaval emerges a new economic superpower, the National Mobilization of Entrepreneurialism, rejecting outdated dogmas to unlock human ingenuity and redefine global leadership.
Why is Expothon Worldwide gaining global attention? An international platform for entrepreneurial innovation and authority on National Mobilization of SME protocols, now so focused on 100 countries. Why is it challenging to use immediately deployable methodologies for all massive SME sectors within the GCC, OIC, European Union, African Union, Commonwealth, BRICS, and ASEAN for national mobilization of entrepreneurialism as pragmatic solutions? Over the last decade, these insights have been shared weekly and reached approximately 2,000 selected VIP recipients, including National Cabinet-level senior government officials, across 100 free economies. This track record of expertise and trust forms the foundation of its proposed strategies.
This is no mere shift but a clarion call to global economic intellectualism: confront the silence, embrace this tectonic change, and forge bold solutions. We invite visionaries to an international summit where minds and bodies converge to craft a future where enlightened nations lead, unshackled from the shadows of debt, ensuring prosperity for all.
Global Challenge and Summit Invitation: Decades ago, Expothon Worldwide prophetically called for a National Mobilization of Entrepreneurialism, urging nations to harness the potential of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to drive revolutionary changes. However, international economic institutions, comfortable in their ivory towers, dismissed this bold vision for fear of disrupting Western-centric beliefs. Today, a billion new entrepreneurs from population-rich nations are emerging, searching for opportunities, while knowledge-rich nations, lacking clear plans, are facing significant challenges.
The global political economy, burdened by debt and the allure of cryptocurrency, is increasingly challenging for Knowledge-Rich Nations, which remain unaware of the SME-driven, population-rich nations' revolutions reshaping new global commerce. We invite visionaries to an international summit where minds and bodies come together to create a future where enlightened nations lead, free from the constraints of debt, ensuring prosperity for all.
BRICS exemplifies the PRN-KRN dynamic: Core members, such as India, China, Brazil, and South Africa, are PRN powerhouses, harnessing their large populations to drive entrepreneurial growth. Meanwhile, Russia contributes KRN elements with its expertise in energy and technology. New entrants, such as Indonesia and Nigeria, enhance the strengths of PRN, promoting demographic synergy and market expansion to counter KRN's dominance in global forums. Expothon plays a crucial role in this bloc, facilitating the implementation of large-scale skills transformations.
A Path Forward: Collaborate with this framework, accessible via its free 50-page report on the 21 Pillars of Nouveau Rationalism, download from expothon.com
Expothon can bring deployment-ready solutions to BRICS on a fast-track basis: National Mobilization of Entrepreneurialism to unleash SMEs across the bloc, AI as a steering wheel for job creators, and pragmatic tech transfers to boost grassroots prosperity. This aligns with BRICS' focus on AI governance and trade, enabling the bloc to lead an industrial revolution of the mind. A dedicated global summit within BRICS could convene visionaries for collaborative audits, accelerate remedies for anti-job-creation syndrome, and illuminate the bloc against dark debt threats.
The rest is easy.

South Africa
Source: www.dailymaverick.co.za

India defies US President Donald Trump’s bullying. Will African countries do the same?

Are US President Donald Trump’s attempts to bludgeon the world into submission with massive tariffs starting to backfire?

This question arose after the cosy meeting between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping at this week’s Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Tianjin, China.

At the summit three years ago, Putin was implicitly rebuked by Xi and Modi for his invasion of Ukraine. Other leaders seemed to ignore him. This week in Tianjin, Putin unashamedly blamed the West for the war in Ukraine, chortling as he held hands with Modi, and all three leaders beamed.
“The elephant in the room was President Trump, who has helped end Mr Putin’s isolation, both by welcoming him to US soil for the first time in a decade (for a summit in Alaska) and by clashing with leaders from Brazil, India and South Africa, pushing them closer to Mr Putin,” the New York Times thought.

Trump has slapped 50% tariffs on Indian imports both to pressure Modi to stop buying Russian oil and – supposedly – as punishment for refusing to credit him with brokering an end to his brief war with Pakistan in May.

But Modi has been defiant. According to Reuters he will increase his Russian oil purchases. And Modi’s chummy meeting with Putin in Tianjin clearly showed Trump that India had other options and wouldn’t be bullied.

It was interesting too that the New York Times thought Trump’s bullying was also pushing South Africa closer to Putin. Strained South Africa-US relations have seen Trump cut aid to South Africa and impose 30% tariffs as punishment for various domestic policies. Trump and the Republican Party in Congress also don’t like South Africa’s closeness to China, Russia and Iran, and especially its hostility to Israel.

President Cyril Ramaphosa has tried hard to straddle the divide and maintain relations with the US. But signs of fatigue are showing. Last month, South Africa’s defence force chief visited Tehran and expressed political solidarity with Iran. And South Africa’s military announced a joint exercise with Russia and China in November, as Ramaphosa hosts the G20 summit. On Thursday, the exercise was postponed, presumably on Ramaphosa’s instructions.

But he’s apparently struggling to keep the ANC’s hardliners in the tent. Many feel that with a trade offer having gone unanswered by the US Trade Representative for several weeks now, South Africa should seek partners elsewhere. Such an outcome was the concern of Joe Biden’s administration and remains so of other Western governments, but apparently not of Trump.

Meanwhile, Xi is seizing the opening created by Trump. In June this year, Xi offered zero-tariff access to the Chinese market for imports from the 53 African countries that recognise China (that is, all but Eswatini).

China’s ambassador to South Africa, Wu Peng, recently presented the concession as a response to “unilateralism, protectionism and economic bullying… in particular the US arbitrary tariff hike”, which he said had dealt an especially harsh blow to Africa.

Although Africa’s exporters still face non-tariff barriers such as phytosanitary regulations, China’s abolition of tariffs will be a boon to middle-income countries like South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya. Least-developed countries already enjoyed duty-free access to the Chinese market.

Xi’s offer seems a shrewd geopolitical move, as China is diverting a substantial part of its exports from the US – where they now face higher tariffs – to Africa. So far in 2025, exports from China to Africa total more than for the whole of 2020, and their value is set to exceed $200-billion for the first time. So the net result of Trump’s tariffs is likely to be a widening of China’s already large trade surplus with Africa.
Still, Xi’s gesture “reinforces China’s narrative as a reliable and equitable partner for the [Global South]”, Linda Calabrese wrote for London-based think tank ODI Global in July, contrasting it with Western and especially US protectionism.

Russia lacks the economic muscle to match China’s generous gesture to Africa. Nevertheless, in June, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov declared that Russia’s presence in Africa was “growing” – primarily in investments and other economic interaction but also in defence and security.

And Russia is intensifying its propaganda in Africa, expanding the number of Sputnik and RT bureaus on the continent and pushing its message through several front organisations and paid influencers. Cameron Hudson of the Center for Strategic and International Studies has lamented that Russia is intensifying its propaganda war in Africa, just as Trump is shutting down Voice of America.

Russia is clearly filling power vacuums, militarily and otherwise, left by the US and other Western powers in the Sahel and elsewhere. But that ambition has its problems, certainly on the military side.

According to The Sentry, the Russian military company Wagner – Moscow’s spearhead in parts of Africa – has failed in one of its key battleground states in the fight against jihadists and separatists in Mali. The Sentry warned Mali’s neighbours Niger and Burkina Faso, which are also friendly to Russia, not to make the same mistake of inviting in Wagner or its successor, Africa Corps.

Nevertheless, Russia seems to retain considerable popularity in the Sahel and other parts of Africa. The declining appeal of the West, which began some years ago, has apparently been accelerated by Trump’s slashing of aid and large tariff increases.

It’s hard to be sure what Africans generally think of the US, Russia and China. Still, recent Pew Research Center surveys show that in South Africa and Kenya, the US has overtaken China as the perceived greatest threat to their country.

It’s unclear what this attitude shift means in policy terms, though one outcome could be more African countries joining South Africa, Ethiopia and Egypt in BRICS. Trump perceives BRICS as a threat, brandishing an extra 10% tariff on all the bloc’s members – and even more if they jeopardise the dollar’s supremacy.

It will be instructive to see if these threats encourage or discourage further applications for BRICS membership. DM

Peter Fabricius, consultant, Institute for Security Studies (ISS) Pretoria.
First published by ISS Today.

China
Source: www.china.org.cn

Tourists take photos on Gulangyu Island of Xiamen, southeast China's Fujian Province, Aug. 23, 2025. (Xinhua/Xiao Xiao)

A BRICS forum focused on unleashing the potential of international cooperation and on achieving inclusive and sustainable industrialization will be held from Sept. 16 to 17 in Xiamen, southeast China's Fujian Province, according to a press conference on Friday.

Delegates from over 30 countries and international organizations have signed up for the upcoming BRICS Forum on Partnership on New Industrial Revolution 2025.

Zhu Ke'er, deputy director of the international cooperation department at China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), said that the event will include industrial dialogues, exhibitions and sub-forums, highlighting AI, green and low-carbon development, digital economy and industrial innovation.

She noted that the forum aims to build an exchange platform for governments, industries, academia and research institutions at home and abroad. It also aims to promote the alignment and coordination of industrial policies among various countries and to help enterprises expand cooperation opportunities.

Since 2019, China has hosted six sessions of the BRICS Forum on Partnership on New Industrial Revolution. The 2025 edition will be co-hosted by the MIIT and the Fujian provincial government.