Sieren’s China: A new dawn in Ufa

The seventh BRICS summit began on Wednesday in Russia without there being much detailed coverage in the Western media. There are good reasons for this. "Islamic State" is on the rampage in the Middle East. Its acts of terror have shocked the Chinese as much as Europeans and Africans are fleeing en masse towards Europe. The African exodus cannot be solved without one of the most important players in the African Union.

The EU is fighting for or against Greece. Its scope for negotiation is dominated by the question of how much Russia and China are supporting Greece.

The city in which the summit is taking place was chosen cleverly by host Vladimir Putin. Ufa lies in the Urals, the geographical border between Europe and Asia. It is a multi-ethnic city with a population of over a million, made up of Russians, Tatars and Bashkirs. It is also the seat of the Ufa Religious Assembly, which is led by the highest-ranking Muslim in Russia's European part, as well as in Siberia and Kazakhstan.

Since the 1980s, this has been Chief Mufti Talgat Tadzhuddin. Most inhabitants of the province of Bashkortostan, whose capital is Ufa, are Sunni Muslims. The city depends on oil production.

Never has a global summit taken place in this region. In the West, we are going to have to get used to the fact that other regions are important for BRICS than those which are important to us.

They already make up 40 percent of the global population. In the second half of this century, their economic capacity will outperform that of the G8 states. Europe would do well to pay close attention to the aims of these states rather than focus on Greece.

Different but suited to one another

At the same time, the member countries are very diverse and it is difficult to unite them. China and India, the two big rivals, are countries with high growth rates, with 7.4 and 7.2 percent respectively in the past year. But China's economy is almost five times larger than India's.

The Indians are software specialists and the biggest producer of generic drugs. China is the factory of the world and the most developed growth market. The Russian economy may not be growing much at the moment, but it is important as a maker of weapons as well as as a supplier of oil and gas and because of its landmass.

Brazil, which is undergoing even bigger economic difficulties, is still a globally important supplier of raw materials and the BRICS' agricultural expert. And finally the South Africans - they are the gateway to a booming Africa and also an important supplier of raw materials.

So, it is a winning combination. At the same time, their differences are also their biggest problem. Although they are all emerging economies, their interests conflict with each other. China and Russia are more closely allied than ever before, but not good friends. China and India are rivals who have pulled themselves together. Brazil and South Africa are both courting the same contracts on the African continent.

Even in the preparatory meeting for the BRICS summit in Ufa it became clear that there are also big differences when it comes to the question of how to deal with the West. China and Russia want an unyielding attitude. Brazil and South Africa are more open towards Western nations . As one delegation member put it, India is for "free love" with everyone.

The West as a common adversary

The BRICS nations have already passed the first test and without dilly-dallying. None agreed to sanctions against Russia. On the contrary - not only have China and Russia come closer together in this crisis, but so have the other members of this club of those on the way up. Now - united by a common adversary - they are using clever tactics to try to expand their power.

Nonetheless, they still find it difficult to agree amongst each other. The cultural, social, economic and political differences between them are much bigger than those in the EU. Yet, solidarity is growing and the goal is for the new BRICS bank to become the most important non-Western multilateral bank, by contrast with the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) that was initiated by China and has over 50 Western members.

Of course, it's also a political bank that the BRICS states will use to use to expand their power. Russian Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak recently proposed that Greece become a member to Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras. He certainly was not hoping to receive money from Greece.

Longing for clubs of their own

The second summit is no less important, but in a different way. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) which was founded in 2001 met at the same time as BRICS in Ufa. Its members are China, Russia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Apart from China, these are mainly states that connect Europe and Asia.

At first, this might not seem as important but when you look at the list of countries with observer status it does: Afghanistan, Mongolia, Iran, India and Pakistan. The latter two will probably join the club during the Ufa summit. Including the observer countries, representatives of half of the global population are sitting together at one table. Thus, the SCO is coming closer to the center of world affairs - without one Western country being involved.

After centuries of Western dominance, the longing for clubs of their own is perfectly understandable. These will not replace institutions dominated by the West for some time yet, but they are already complementing them today.

Stabilization of the multi-polar world order

Here too, it is a matter of international credibility. The decisive question for both summits is whether the host, Russian President Vladimir Putin, will not overemphasize his anti-Western position. Institutions are most convincing when they offer themselves as alternatives to existing ones and not as new spaces for the global class war between the east and the west, between those on the way up and those that have already established themselves.

For it is a competition of institutions on an equal footing that will stabilize the still very volatile multi-polar world order. What is also important is how much modesty and thoughtfulness will be displayed by China, which is by far the most powerful country of either club.

One decision gives reason for hope: The new president of the BRICS bank is the Indian banker Kundapur Vaman Kamath. But the bank's headquarters is in Shanghai. With this bank too, the real power relations are in the fine print.

Initially, each of the five BRICS states has $10 billion at its disposal. China wants to bring another $41 billion into the new development bank. By doing this, Beijing would have 39.5 percent of the shares and a simple majority. To counterbalance Beijing, the Indian president would have to position all the others against China. This is very unlikely.

DW correspondent Frank Sieren has lived in Beijing for 20 years.