Comment/analysis
by Sasha Uzunov, Editor, Alternate Comms
What was truly extraordinary was the coming together of India and China, the former a rising superpower, the latter an established superpower, at the BRICS summit hosted by Russia.
Both had been at loggerheads for nearly 5 years over a border dispute. In the 1960s, India and China fought two short border wars over disputed territory.
Indian pundit Palki Sharma described it as the handshake of the decade– Indian Prime Minister Modi and Chinese President XI Jinping burying the hatchet on the sidelines of BRICS.
BRICS is a Russian inspired economic alliance, originally consisting of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. It came into being as a response to the US dominated G7 economic forum. BRICS has expanded with new member states signing up. The Russo-Ukraine war and the West’s opposition to it by imposing economic sanctions has been a motivating factor for Russia to get BRICS up and running as an alternative to the West’s financial and banking systems.
In contrast the AUKUS alliance, which consists of Australia, United Kingdom and United States, has an internal contradiction that hasn’t been resolved. AUKUS is primarily focused on “countering” China, which it sees as a threat in the Asia-Pacific area.
The Australian Federal government, through its powerful, influential cultural/sporting proxies such as the AFL (Australian Football League – governing body of Australian Rules Football), Tennis Australia etc., keeps attacking Britain, Australia’s AUKUS ally. During the recent visit to Australia by King Charles III, nearly all of the State Premiers snubbed him. The British monarch is Australia’s Head of State.
The AFL, Tennis Australia condemn or ban Australia Day over “British colonialism.” Both sports bodies have even gone to the extreme of erasing their British heritage from their respective histories. This is done to appear anti-colonial in front of indigenous Australians but both sports bodies paradoxically, some would say hypocritically, support US nationalism, which has “colonial issues” such as native Americans, the legacy of African slavery, invading other countries, staring wars and so forth. Both the AFL and Tennis Australia glorify the US NFL, a sports body condemned by Native Americans (Indians) for its “neo-colonial” behaviour.
No alliance can survive if one member, Australia, keeps attacking another, United Kingdom. It simply makes no sense. The question that it raises is will AUKUS last long?
