As Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese Premier Li Qiang wrapped up separate meetings in Southeast Asia this week, the two partners in the BRICS economic bloc encountered a region keen to join a group seen as a hedge against Western-led institutions.
For countries seeking to mitigate the economic risks of intensifying US-China competition, joining BRICS is an attempt to straddle some of those tensions. Ukraine leader Volodymyr Zelenskiy struggled to convince Asian nations to back his peace summit in Switzerland earlier this month, and Putin this week signed a defence pact with North Korea while warning he had the right to arm US adversaries around the world.
“Vietnam is always ready to participate in and contribute actively to global and regional multilateral mechanisms,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Pham Thu Hang said at the time. Just hosting the event gives Moscow a chance to showcase to the world that it isn’t totally isolated by Western opposition to the war in Ukraine.
A State Department official said the US is aware of Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam’s interest in BRICS, adding that multilateral blocs should further United Nations Charter principles such as respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity.The bloc’s members have agreed to pool $100 billion of foreign-currency reserves, which they can lend to each other during emergencies.