Xi's swipe at the US, UK during the BRICS Summit: "Sanctions are a double-edged sword"

23 Jun 2022 , 03:19 PM

In his remarks on Wednesday at the BRICS Summit, Chinese President Xi Jinping took aim at US and EU sanctions against Russia, stating that they “are a boomerang and a double-edged sword.”

“Politicizing, instrumentalizing, and weaponizing the global financial system using a powerful position to arbitrarily impose sanctions will only injure others as well as oneself, leaving people suffering throughout the world,” Xi said at the BRICS Business Forum.

The “Ukraine situation is a wake-up call,” said Xi at the BRICS economic gathering. He also cautioned against “growing military alliances and seeking one’s own security at the price of other nations’ security.” Russia, China and India have close military ties and significant oil and gas purchases.

India is likely to challenge Xi’s anticipated attempt to use the summit to emphasize his initiatives to create a rival to the US-led international system. Beijing is interested in seeing the BRICS alliance grow.

Beijing is the venue for the summit of the powerful BRICS group of developing economies, which together make up more than 40% of the world’s population and about a quarter of its gross domestic output.

China, India, and South Africa, three of its members, chose not to participate in the vote on a United Nations resolution denouncing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The Group of Seven (G7) country heads will meet the following week in Germany to decide how to move forward with sanctions on Russia. Russian forces have been pounding eastern Ukraine since they invaded there four months ago while the BRICS meeting is taking place.

China and India have both increased their crude oil imports from Russia, helping to make up for the losses caused by Western countries cutting back on their purchases of Russian energy. According to research company Rystad Energy’s statistics, China’s imports of Russian oil during that time period quadrupled while India’s purchases increased by six times.