On Vladimir Putin's side: China and its partners avoid criticism of the Ukraine war

Created: 06/29/2022Updated: 06/29/2022, 15:25

By: Sven Hauberg

Here's to friendship!

Vladimir Putin during the opening ceremony of the virtual BRICS summit.

© Mikhail Metzel/Pool Sputnik Kremlin/dpa

At the virtual BRICS summit, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa showed unity on the Ukraine issue.

On other points, however, there are differences.

Munich/Beijing – From a European perspective, it may at times seem as if the whole world is united in condemning Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine.

That this is not the case became clear once again on Thursday (June 23).

The heads of state of the so-called BRICS countries Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa came together – albeit only virtually – for their annual summit, which this time was hosted by Beijing.

Together, these five countries represent more than 40 percent of the world's population, more than 3.2 billion people live here.

The BRICS countries may not agree on many things, but they have one thing in common: they have so far avoided criticism of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

China's President Xi Jinping: "Ukraine crisis" is "a wake-up call for the world"

In the case of Moscow, which is the aggressor, this is not surprising.

But China, which is economically and technologically dependent on good relations with the West, has so far stood firmly on the side of the Kremlin.

In his opening remarks on Wednesday, Beijing leader Xi Jinping said the Ukraine war (which he dubbed merely a "crisis") was "a wake-up call for the world."

By this, however, Xi did not mean that the world should be wary of countries like Russia seeking to expand their spheres of influence.

Rather, Xi criticized NATO and the West, blaming them for the escalation of the situation.

"The fetishism of positions of power, the expansion of military alliances and the pursuit of one's own security at the expense of the security of other countries inevitably lead to a security dilemma," Xi said.

A few days earlier, on his birthday of all things, the 69-year-old had again pledged his support to the Kremlin in a conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry has also repeatedly asserted the "rock-solid" friendship between the two countries.

Anyway, after Xi's BRICS speech, Andrey Denisov, the Russian ambassador in Beijing, declared: "We support everything he said."

China on Russia sanctions over Ukraine war

In the so-called "Beijing Declaration" of the BRICS summit, the name of Ukraine appears only three times, even though the final document is several pages long.

They support talks between Russia and Ukraine, it says, and: "We also discussed our concerns about the humanitarian situation in Ukraine and in the region." The tenor that emanated from this summit was, despite these few vaguely formulated sentences clearly: Russia still has many friends in the world.

In addition to China, this also includes India.

New Delhi also remains on Moscow's side, but describes itself as neutral.

The subcontinent is dependent on trade with Russia, especially in the armaments sector.

The Indian government gets most of its military supplies from the Russians.

And India also likes to buy Russian oil – just like China, the country has recently increased its imports and is benefiting from high price reductions.

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Accordingly, both countries reject the sanctions against Russia.

At least in the case of China, observers assume that the government is not trying to help other countries to circumvent the sanctions.

In his opening speech at the BRICS summit, Xi Jinping described the West's sanctions as a "double-edged sword" and a "boomerang".

Brazil and South Africa are also likely to see it that way, at least they don't support the punitive measures either.

Brazil's main concern is not to jeopardize economic relations with Moscow.

South Africa, whose capital Pretoria is around 8,500 kilometers south of Kyiv, was one of 17 African countries to abstain from voting on a UN resolution condemning Russia's war of aggression in March.

During the Cold War, the Soviet Union supported freedom groups' struggle against the apartheid regime.

“Our approach is that we believe in peace, we believe in resolving any conflict through peaceful means, and we believe in the primacy of the UN system, which governs us all by agreed rules that we should all respect South Africa's ambassador to Beijing, Siyabonga Cwele, recently told the Chinese state newspaper

.

China wants to expand BRICS

The leaders of the BRICS countries have met annually since 2009, initially without South Africa, which only joined the group in 2010.

Even if there is a certain degree of unity among the countries on the Ukraine issue, the differences cannot be overlooked.

India is not only part of BRICS, but also a member of the Quad, a loose military alliance that also includes Australia, Japan and the USA.

The four states have set themselves the goal of curbing Chinese influence in the Indo-Pacific region.

For Beijing, unsurprisingly, the Quad is "an exclusive and closed clique" and "a product of the Cold War mentality."

And Brazil is not only interested in good relations with Russia, but also with the West.

President Jair Bolsonaro, who wants to be re-elected in six months, could even benefit from the war if his country presents itself to the West as an alternative to Russia when it comes to oil, gas or food supplies.

A difficult balancing act.

India will also be a guest country at the G7 summit in Elmau next weekend, as will South Africa.

Both India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi and South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa are traveling to Bavaria, where the G7 countries will have to do some convincing if they want to get the two countries on their side in the Ukraine conflict.

With more at stake than whether or not South Africa and India support Western sanctions.

It is also about the question of whether a new bloc will form with the BRICS countries as a counterweight to the West.

It doesn't look like it yet.

However, Beijing is already striving to expand the five-country alliance: China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi said in May that they want to start an expansion process.