‘Go find another sucker’: Trump’s message to BRICS members, which includes India
Donald Trump, the next president of the United States, said on Saturday that BRICS countries can ‘go find another sucker’ if they cannot commit that they will neither create a new currency of their own, nor back any other currency “to replace the mighty US Dollar”.
Formed in 2009, BRICS is an intergovernmental organisation comprising nine countries – Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, and the United Arab Emirates – and was originally identified to highlight investment opportunities.
BRICS is the only major international group of which the United States is not a part. Over the past few years a few of its member countries, excluding India and in particular Russia and China, are seeking an alternative to the US Dollar or create own BRICS currency.
Warning BRICS countries against any move to replace the US dollar, President Elect sought a commitment from the nine-member group.
“The idea that the BRICS Countries are trying to move away from the Dollar while we stand by and watch is OVER,” the president-elect said in a post on microblogging platform X.
“We require a commitment from these Countries that they will neither create a new BRICS Currency, nor back any other Currency to replace the mighty U.S. Dollar or, they will face 100% Tariffs and should expect to say goodbye to selling into the wonderful U.S. Economy,” Trump warned.
“They can go find another ‘sucker!’ There is no chance that the BRICS will replace the US Dollar in International Trade, and any Country that tries should wave goodbye to America,” Trump wrote.
At the 2023 summit in South Africa, BRICS countries committed to study the feasibility of a new common currency, with regard to which a proposal was made by the Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula de Silva.
India against de-dollarisation
India, an key pillar of BRICS, has said it is against de-dollarisation.
“…ask you about de-Dollarization as a possibility for the world. At times India has expressed interest in alternative currency. It can serve as a reserve mechanism. I wonder how do you see that right now what you see as the role of the dollar and these discussions about your national policy? India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had said during his appearance at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in October this year.
“I think you have us confused for someone else because we have never actively targeted the dollar. That’s not part of either our economic policy or our political or our strategic policy. Some others may have,” news agency PTI quoted Jaishankar as saying.
“What I will tell you is a natural concern there. We often have trade partners who do not have dollars to take. So, we now have to look at whether we forgo dealings with them or do we find some settlement which works otherwise. So, there’s no, I can say malicious intent vis-a-vis the dollar in business. WE are trying to do our business,” he said.
“Sometimes you make it difficult in the use of dollars. We have some trade partners with whom trade in dollars becomes difficult because of your policies. We have to obviously look for workarounds. But for us, as we spoke about rebalancing, we spoke about multiple obviously all of this is also going to reflect on currencies and economic needs,” said Jaishankar.