West’s clinging to hegemony driving BRICS’ ‘explosive’ expansion — Foreign Minister Lavrov

JOHANNESBURG-  The “explosive” growth of the BRICS group is being driven by the understanding among diverse countries that the West is stubbornly clinging to its fading hegemony in global affairs, which it will go to any extreme to preserve, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters on Thursday, noting that 23 nations had applied to become BRICS members.

“What is the reason behind such an explosive growth of BRICS? I think it is due to those countries that would like to join the group of five that are coming to understand the root causes of those processes currently underway in the international arena, which have laid bare to what extent the West is stubbornly determined to preserve its hegemony at any cost,” Russia’s top diplomat said.

According to Lavrov, this hegemonic mindset extends to the entire globe, and “everybody understands that the US is pursuing the goal not just of punishing Russia, using the Ukrainian Nazi regime [as its proxy],” but is in fact seeking “to root out and eliminate any form of dissent or non-compliance” with Washington’s arbitrary dictates.

This trend has been particularly visible in Africa of late, the Russian foreign minister maintained. As an example, he cited the US Countering Malign Russian Activities in Africa Act that the US Congress enacted last year. At that time, many Africans expressed great resentment about the display of “such an insulting attitude toward them,” in which the US arrogantly presumes to instruct them as sovereign nations with whom they can and cannot maintain relations, Lavrov said.

“While many [countries] may not find it easy to take the heat of such pressure alone, they (countries applying for membership – TASS) see in BRICS a group of allies and the foundation of that very multipolar world that all of us should now dedicate ourselves to bringing into being,” he concluded.

Source: TASS