Multilateralism and global governance reform: Key to shared development in BRICS and beyond

Editor's note: Azhar Azam, a special commentator on current affairs for CGTN, works for a private organization as a market and business analyst. He writes on geopolitical affairs and regional conflicts. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily those of CGTN.

On the sidelines of BRICS Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, stressed on the importance of forging unity and cooperation and work with international community to improve and reform global governance to address global challenges and historical injustices to the Global South.

Seeking an alliance to safeguard multilateral trading rules, strengthen the international financial system, accelerate green transition and share digital opportunities, he denounced the U.S. for using tariffs as a "bargaining chip to demand exorbitant prices" from other countries, calling on partner states to jointly oppose all forms of protectionism.

As the Western-led governance system experiences an incessant erosion of credibility over its own predatory and protectionist policies, leading to more international turbulence and slower global growth, Wang offered a framework of cooperation to protect interests of the Global South and develop a joint response to the new, cascading challenges, helping contending with America's actions to erect trade barriers and grow at the expense of development in developing nations.

U.S. President Donald Trump has imposed indiscriminate tariffs on almost the entire world, not seen in more than a century. These "fake" taxes reveal that the U.S. can no longer claim to be an anchor of the international economic system or guarantor of free trade and fears competition, which could drive up innovation in the country and have benefited America and Americans for decades.

This "rent-seeking" approach could weigh on the global economy and the U.S. economy. According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), a burst of tariffs introduced by Trump on April 2 could lower U.S. growth to 1.8 percent in 2025, a 0.9 percent decline from the Fund's January forecast. This could prompt the IMF to call for an urgent trade policy settlement among major players.

At this watershed moment when tariff-induced uncertainty is spiking off the charts, strengthening multilateralism is one of the key means to promote development across regions since it represents a majority of the nations and encourages them to work through joint consultation and shared understanding, raising a collective voice against unlawful tariffs and sanctions.

Due to its core principles, including consensus-based decision-making, fostering development and equality, and modernizing and reforming global multilateral and governance institutions, BRICS has witnessed an exponential expansion over recent years. Several emerging economies, such as Indonesia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Ethiopia, Iran, and potentially Saudi Arabia, are now part of the organization.

BRICS expansion will significantly elevate bloc's influence internationally, bring inclusivity to a fragmented world and contribute to stability and development especially in the Middle East and North Africa, which is grappled with enormous security and economic challenges over Trump's threats of taking over Gaza, military action on Tehran and tariff-driven recession in oil markets.

The organization is accused of seeking to "avowedly" challenge the Western-led economic governance institutions and establish an alternate to the existing international order, but this argument lacks the necessary rigor. BRICS instead envisages amputating systemic bias against the Global South from the current global order and strengthening it by promoting multilateralism, reforming international institutions and stepping up efforts to build a more effective, inclusive and representative multilateral system. 

Wang's proposals, as a matter of fact, is consistent with the UN whose Pact of the Future aims at transforming global governance and United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres at last year BRICS summit emphasized the grouping's role in strengthening multilateralism for global development and security, warned of widening digital divide, admitted lack of Global South's representation in the Bretton Wood institutions and sought the alliance to help craft a more equitable global finance system, boost climate action, improve access to technology and work toward peace.

While the bloc's Contingent Reserve Arrangement contributes to the robustness of the global financial system and complements IMF support mechanisms, its New Development Bank seeks to leverage proven and emerging transformative technologies to deploy clean and renewable energy and build smart transport and logistics projects in partner states that decouple economic growth from environmental degradation and pollution.

BRICS expansion allows countries such as Ethiopia access to technology, bridging the digital gap. The organization advocates resolution of disputes through diplomacy, inclusive dialogues, conflict-prevention efforts, tolerance, and peaceful coexistence through a UN-centered, reinvigorated and reformed multilateral system. The bloc's increased alignment on cultural exchanges and humanitarian projects enhances its profile as a multifaceted organization.

What the world witnesses today is a consequence of the U.S. nationalistic policies, seeking to undermine global peace and upend once-harmonious globalization for self-centric geopolitical and economic gains. This arrogant and protectionist approach and failure of the Western-dominated institutional architecture to address contemporary challenges such as the Ukraine and Middle East crises have triggered disillusionment in the Global South with the so-called liberal order.

In the form of BRICS, the Global South, particularly marginalized countries, has discovered a platform where they are treated with a spirit featuring mutual respect, openness, inclusiveness, and solidarity. It is gaining traction here, where they could collectively raise their voice on global injustices and economic disparities, become part of international policymaking processes, actively participate in shaping a fair and equitable economic order, practice genuine multilateralism, and bring back globalization from the brink.

With BRICS countries representing about half of the world population, 36 percent of territory, 39 percent of world GDP (compared to the G7's 28.4 percent), and 23 percent of international trade, the alliance can leverage its resources and economic and demographic heft to even out global imbalances and an overly West-leaning international order. Increasing trade and deepening economic integration while demonstrating unity, upholding multilateralism, and improving global governance could offset Trump's assault on the monetary sovereignty of the Global South, contribute to peace and stability, and pursue shared development within the member states and across the developing world.

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