The BRICS grouping is not against the United States but represents a push for a multipolar and genuinely multilateral global order, American economist and foreign policy expert Jeffrey Sachs said, while backing alternatives to the US dollar, citing the weaponisation of the currency.
Speaking to ANI on the recently concluded 18th BRICS Summit, held under India’s chairship, and the unanimously adopted New Delhi Declaration, Sachs said the grouping’s position reflected the emergence of a multipolar world and called for disputes to be resolved through diplomacy rather than unilateral action. “It was an important stance of ‘The World’ that is not part of the US alliance, declaring, ‘there’s a multipolar world. We have a lot more people than you do, and you have to calm down and behave differently. We’re going to have to settle issues diplomatically, not by wars of aggression by the United States, which is why we have this crisis in the Gulf region’,” Sachs said.
“It wants a true multilateral system objectively. It’s not saying we’re an alliance against the United States. It’s saying we are against US unilateralism,” he added. On whether BRICS’ efforts to promote alternatives to the US dollar represented an attempt to end dollar dominance, Sachs said he supported alternatives primarily because of the use of the dollar as a foreign policy tool. “I’m in favour of alternatives to the US dollar, not for technical monetary reasons, but because the US weaponised the dollar,” Sachs stated. He also cited the use of the international financial system as a means of enforcing US policy, arguing that countries should have mechanisms to conduct trade outside the dollar when they disagree with US’ demands.
“If the United States tells India, ‘Don’t import from Russia,’ that’s illegitimate and illegal, and India should not comply with such a demand. But at the same time, the enforcement is that if you don’t comply with us, we cut you out of the SWIFT bank payment system. That is why there needs to be a way for India and Russia to trade outside of the dollar,” Jeffrey Sachs said.
Sachs also referred to US President Donald Trump’s opposition to efforts to move away from the dollar, saying, “Donald Trump nearly blew his stack on this. It’s one of the clearest statements he’s made as President: ‘Don’t you dare move away from the dollar’ he said. That’s pretty revealing because he is reflecting the fact that the US views that as core foreign policy.”
BRICS Not Against US, But US Unilateralism: Sachs Backs Dollar Alternative
