Analyst: Recent BRICS move, signal Beijing seeking closer ties with Tehran

“Iran is yet to catch up with the BRICS’s standards and is still unripe [as an economy], and has a long way ahead of it. But even now this shows that China is willing to have relations with Iran and reciprocally Iran is interested in relations with China.”

“Of course it should be noted here that the Chinese, despite their disagreements with the US over Taiwan and mutual trade, are not willing to see such organizations as Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the BRICS group to turn into a place for countering the US,” Diaco Hosseini said in an interview with ISNA.

“Still, just as tensions are running high between Iran and the US, tensions are also running high between China and the US. The invitation by China for the Iranian president to address in this summit is a soft signal by China that it can have different ties with Iran, while conveying the message to the US that China’s ties can include enemies of the US.”

BRICS, he said, is now a Chinese brand where Beijing is trying to maintain and expand the strength of emerging economic powers, therefore the organization is already a political and economic platform against the US.

“The objective of BRICS is not countering the US, just as we do not see this openly in China’s policy. But creating the image of building a powerful economic bloc is surely one of the objectives of this group,” he added.

Hosseini also noted that China using the BRICS, or the political south, to create its brand will have an important role in advancing Beijing’s policies, though it may be too soon to say China will be successful in using the leverage.

BRICS is the short for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The organization represents half of the world population and 28 percent of the global economy.