According to media reports, on January 1, 2024, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Iran, and Ethiopia officially became members of the BRICS. Experts and scholars from these new BRICS member countries have given high praise to their respective countries' accession to the BRICS.
They agreed that this will help countries tap their own development potential and promote their own economic development through cooperation, and looked forward to these new members injecting more new vitality into the BRICS organization.
However, at the same time that Iran and other countries officially became members of the BRICS, another country that had already been admitted to the BRICS at last year's BRICS summit, that is, Argentina, officially refused to join the BRICS.
BRICS
In the words of Argentine President Milley, he believes that it is now "not very ripe" for Argentina to join the BRICS.
Obviously, this reason is, of course, an excuse for Argentina to excuse itself, because the BRICS is an open, inclusive international cooperation organization that does not have much mandatory binding force.
In other words, for any developing country that does not want to stiffen relations with emerging economies, including China, India, Russia, etc., but wants to gain access to the markets, capital and technology of these countries, then joining the BRICS organization is an excellent thing.
However, Argentina, as a large South American country with rich strategic mineral deposits and a high degree of economic complementarity with emerging countries such as China, has refused to join the BRICS, and the reason for refusal is that "the timing is not right", which is obviously unreasonable.
Argentine President Milley
So, what really motivated Milley to refuse to join the BRICS? The answer is actually quite simple: the United States.
From Argentina's point of view, government debt is currently high, much of which is from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
These two global financial organizations are essentially manipulated by Europe and the United States behind the scenes. Now Argentina owes a lot of money to these two organizations and cannot repay it on time, and hopes that the United States will come forward to help Argentina extend the repayment deadline, or borrow new money to repay the old one, and get funds from the United States to relieve the debt pressure.
The United States, on the other hand, does not want Argentina to join the BRICS, and the two sides have their own needs and hit it off.
US President Joe Biden
Therefore, despite the efforts of the Argentine government for many years, President Milley was given such an opportunity to join the BRICS organization, and turned to embrace the United States, perhaps in order to obtain some financing loans from the United States to solve the current Argentine debt crisis and domestic economic problems.
Objectively speaking, in order to be able to add blockage to China and Russia, and at the same time to be able to control some strategic resources such as key minerals in Argentina, the United States intends to provide some financing loans to Argentina, which will help Argentina tide over the current debt crisis and economic difficulties in the short term.
However, from the perspective of Argentina's long-term development and the overall development of South America, President Milley has now given up on joining the BRICS organization and turned to the arms of the United States, hoping to obtain financing from the United States.
The logic is not complicated, Argentina has fallen from a developed country that was once richer than France and Germany to now has high debts and tends to collapse its economy, and the root cause is because of the United States' policy of restraint towards Latin American countries.
Argentina
To put it bluntly, under the banner of the "Monroe Doctrine", the United States has controlled the entire Latin American region of industry and even agriculture in its own hands for the past 100 years, which has prompted these countries to have no way to industrialize even if they have rich land and rich mineral deposits.
At the same time, however, because Latin American countries are very close to the United States, the so-called "democratic and free" high-welfare social system based on a mature industrialization system imported from the United States has been established.
Against this background, the situation in Argentina, including the entire Latin American region, is like a small horse-drawn cart, unable to make ends meet, and a debt crisis is doomed.
In order to keep the car moving, Latin American countries can only continue to borrow money from the United States and even the international community to power the front of the car. But the problem is that the borrowed money always has to be repaid, and when there is no way to pay it back, the only way to do so is to sell the country's assets at a low price.
The United States and Latin America
Nowadays, it is true that Argentina is facing a huge debt crisis, but instead of seeking cooperation with emerging developing countries such as China and Russia, it will enhance the potential of Argentina's economic development from the root and truly lead Argentina out of the predicament in an industrialized way, but choose to seek direct financing from the United States.
Obviously, even this "old way" can alleviate Argentina's debt crisis in the short term. However, from a long-term perspective, it is actually a continuation of the wrong line that the entire Latin American country has handed over its economic lifeline to the United States for nearly 100 years.
The result is obvious: If the United States had sincerely helped Argentina and other Latin American countries, then Argentina, Cuba, and other countries today would not have fallen to the point they are today.
On the other hand, from the perspective of the BRICS, Argentina, a country that is located on the South American continent and is relatively special in the global industrial chain pattern, chooses to reject the BRICS, which is not necessarily a bad thing.
Gold Bricks
Because it can at least make it clear to the rest of the world what Argentina will lose by rejecting the BRICS, and what will the five countries that have just joined the BRICS, including Iran and Ethiopia, gain from joining the BRICS?
As the saying goes, there is no harm if there is no comparison, and Argentina's choice of such a route will actually help the BRICS organization expand its influence. Obviously, the world will see that Argentina's "old path" of embracing the United States will only sink them even more.