BRICS membership attests Ethiopia’s commitment to prioritizing South-South Cooperation: analyst

Addis Ababa, January 2, 2023 (FBC) – Ethiopia’s membership in BRICS shows how serious the organization is about prioritizing South-South cooperation, the American political analyst Andrew Korybko said in an interview with ENA.

It is known that starting from January 1, 2024 Ethiopia has assumed its membership in the BRICS.

Korybko said that Ethiopia is the historical cradle of Pan-Africanism and the continent’s anti-imperialist movement.

That is why Addis Ababa was chosen to host the AU headquarters, he added.

Moreover, the analyst noted that Ethiopia is also the second most populace African country with plenty of economic potential.

By inviting Ethiopia to join as a permanent member, therefore, BRICS is showing how serious it is about prioritizing South-South cooperation.

“No comprehensive engagement with Africa is possible without any country or organization also comprehensively engaging with Ethiopia,” Korybko elaborated.

With this axiom in mind, it’s expected that Ethiopia’s emerging geo-economic role will be in facilitating BRICS South-South cooperation with Africa and the Horn as a whole to serve as the centerpiece of this process with time.

On other hand, the analyst noted that Ethiopia has the Horn’s most promising economy due to its incomparably large size and resources, including low-cost and reliable hydropower from the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD).

This will serve as the anchor for others like its fellow BRICS members to trade with the rest of the region.

“Historically speaking, as Ethiopia goes, so goes the region. Therefore, Ethiopia’s BRICS-accelerated rise as a leading Global South economy is expected to bring more development to its neighbors after some time,” he stated.

According to Korybko, the Horn is located astride one of the world’s most important shipping lanes and it’s long overdue for these countries to finally benefit in full in from their strategic economic location.

With improved connectivity and Ethiopia’s forthcoming ability to protect its maritime logistics, foreign confidence in their collective potential will surge, he added.

The analyst believes that this “can be taken even further if the Horn eventually follows Southeast Asia’s example by turning IGAD into a regional version of ASEAN or forming a new group for this purpose.”

In general, Korybko summed up that Ethiopia’s membership is very symbolic since it speaks to the members’ vision of accelerating related processes across the rest of the decade at this crucial moment in the global systemic transition to multipolarity.