South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has also invited leaders of 67 countries to the summit, including 53 other African countries. The origins of the BRICS can be traced to 2006, when the foreign ministers of Brazil, Russia, India, and China met for the first time on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, marking the beginning of BRIC cooperation. In June 2009, the BRIC leaders held their first meeting in Russia, upgrading BRIC cooperation to Summit level. In 2011, with South Africa officially becoming a member, BRIC was enlarged to BRICS.
Since 2009, the BRICS leaders have convened 14 formal meetings and nine informal meetings. In 2017, China successfully hosted the BRICS Xiamen Summit. The BRICS leaders unanimously agreed to develop a closer, broader and more comprehensive strategic partnership, and consolidate the three-wheel-driven cooperation covering economy, political security and people-to-people exchanges. The BRICS leaders also set up the idea of BRICS+ cooperation and jointly ushered in the second Golden Decade of BRICS cooperation.
Over the past 16 years since the establishment of BRICS, the foundation for cooperation has been consolidated and the areas of cooperation have been expanded. It has become an all-round and multi-level framework, with the BRICS Summit playing a leading role, supported by BRICS Meetings of Ministers of Foreign Affairs and the Meetings of National Security Advisers, carrying out practical cooperation in dozens of areas, such as economy and trade, finance, science and technology, industry, agriculture, culture, education, health, think tanks, and friendship cities. The BRICS countries uphold fairness and justice, actively promote reform of the global governance system and make the BRICS voice heard on international and regional hotspot issues. This has not only enhanced the voice of emerging markets and developing countries in the world, but also made BRICS an important platform for promoting the South-South cooperation. BRICS cooperation has been widely recognised by developing countries, and its status and role in multilateral mechanisms such as the United Nations, the G20, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have been rising and growing.
When addressing the meeting of BRICS National Security advisors recently, China’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Wang Yi posited that “BRICS countries follow the trend of the times, stand on the right side of history and the side of human progress, and this is the bedrock of BRICS cooperation”. His sentiments show that BRICS countries have continuously advanced three-driver cooperation, namely political and security cooperation, economic cooperation and people-to-people exchanges, which has yielded fruitful outcomes.
This therefore should be a motivation for Botswana to strategically seek ways to fully benefit from the BRICS bloc. All the members of the BRICS countries have a well-established diplomatic relationship with Botswana. During the 2022 BRICS summit, His Excellency Xi Jinping, president of the People’s Republic of China, raised some important issues about what a developing country like Botswana can learn and intensify her relationship with the mechanism so as to maximize some socio-economic benefits especially in the volatile global economy that has been severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. In his remarks, Jinping pointed out that “over the years, developing countries have worked unremittingly to explore development path that is suited for their national realities and to pursue economic and social development and that such efforts have produced remarkable outcomes, today emerging markets and developing countries account for half of the world economy and notable progress has been made in education, social development, culture and many other areas.” From these remarks, one can point out the importance of inclusivity in world affairs and the need for South-South cooperation that the Chinese president emphasized as a way of mapping a path to sustainable development. President Jinping reasons that the international community has to put development at the forefront on the international agenda, where the international community builds a political consensus to ensure that everyone values development and all countries pursue cooperation. It is very important to note that President Jinping has a strong believe that it is through inclusive cooperation in the international community, where states work together using mechanisms such as the BRICS, to push a much needed developmental agenda that can go a long way in having socio-economic benefits to the global community. What was highlighted by President Jinping should be a very important lesson to a developing country such as Botswana on how she can strategically place herself in a very good position to cooperate with the BRICS mechanism and gain some socio-economic benefits. The background that the upcoming BRICS Summit has an extension of invitation to 53 African countries should be a lesson to Botswana that the BRICS is not a mechanism of five but a representation of emerging market and developing countries where Botswana could really benefit. It is therefore very important for foreign policy strategists in Botswana to strategically engage with members of the diplomatic corps from the BRICS countries that are based in Botswana to exploit some channels in which Botswana will work closely with the BRICS mechanism on different areas such as health, trade, agriculture, e-commerce and others.
The onus lies on Botswana to work hard to convince the BRICS mechanism that she is an important player worth cooperating within the framework of the BRICS. Botswana, should then start constructive engagement with the BRICS members especially China, so that the country can work together with the mechanism on the development agenda such as the Global Development Initiative, Global Security Initiative and Global Civilisation Initiative proposed by Chinese President Jinping. Furthermore, it is important to note that the 2023 BRICS Summit will touch on very important issues that will be worth exploiting further by Botswana. On many occasions, the president of Botswana, Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi, has talked about the need for Botswana to embrace the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Knowledge Based Economy), which has a huge potential to transform the country’s economy and create employment and wealth creation opportunities for the ordinary citizens. As all BRICS members especially China, are well advanced in terms of the digital technology, it is very important for Botswana to take advantage and work on how best she can cooperate with the mechanism to develop her technology for sustainable development. This will further add to other opportunities that have been availed by China to African countries through the Global Development Initiative and Forum on China–Africa Cooperation. Botswana, as a developing country, must fully understand and appreciate the importance of using or engaging with mechanisms such as the BRICS as a way of harnessing the benefits of South-South cooperation. Botswana must appreciate that together with political dialogue, trade, financial and other forms of cooperation, South-South cooperation promotes a large number of knowledge and expertise exchanges through programmes, projects and initiatives that have helped solve specific problems in the countries of the global south.
It is vital for Botswana to acknowledge that South-South development cooperation has been extensively promoted and applied by the fast growing economies of the BRICS countries, which are now forming a leading position and thus representing a pivotal new model of cooperation between countries from the Global South. As a parting shot, it is very advisable for the government of Botswana to work around the clock to strategically place herself at the forefront of cooperating with the BRICS mechanism in terms of trade, education, sustainable development, health, agriculture, digital technology and other areas, as this kind of cooperation has huge socio-economic benefits in the long-term.
