as the head of the e. u. ursula vander lay in fast tracks ukraine's application to join the block a slap in the face to turkey and reach up or to one whose country has been vying to join the group for decades. but 1st, let's take a look at what countries have turned their backs to the u. s. in the e u, in their unconditional support of ukraine. now some of these countries have taken a position of strategic ambiguity or have decided to strengthen relations with russia instead. our international correspondent has all the details in increasingly turning russia into it for a state. if that was so present putin's plan well, you can say it's working. russia has never been so isolated. that was back in march, when the full swing of anthea of russia hysteria was reaching its climax. but things have not gone according to plan. this map shows all of the countries who have joy on 2 sections against russia. outside of europe, north america, australia,

and new zealand, the least is short, and by far, a huge part of the world's population does not leave a nation sanctioning russia. and now, several months on russia is looking less and less isolated. in fact, europe and the united states are isolated from the rest of the world. russia's economy is stronger than he was before the start of the conflict in a crane. in fact, the rubel continues to strengthen against the dollar. and brushes trading relationship with other nations are increasing. like in the energy sector, oil and gas exports to china have increased since february of this year. and other nations like brazil and south africa, part of the bricks block for which china hosted summit in june. so no indications appeal enough and joining the west. in fact, more and more nations like argentina and iran are looking to join the bricks. now

it looks like the west unity, as well as its economies, are crumbling, with more and more territory in ukraine, falling to the russians and their allies. hungary, for example, has refused to engage in an oil and gas embargo against russia. arguing the shutting itself off from russia would mean economic ruin for the nation. and its people. and inflation is devastating economies across europe, as well as in north america. and the rest of that man's world. so how long can the west hold out? and the supposed unity under great as russia continue, its advances in the grave for the ammo am brooklyn of salon. and joining us to discuss is mere dough. sony, he is the co director of peace, the vigil dot net, and currently at the answer apology department of the university of western cape,

where he is completing his ph. d dissertation on how colonial relations continue to define our modern era some year. thank you so much for joining us today. so as we have seen, the u. s. is by far the greatest financial and military backer to ukraine thus far, much greater then the e u and u. k. combined. how do you read this lopsided investment by the us? yeah, i mean, i think the 1st thing to say is that we should all be condemning rushes and vision of the ukraine. it's a violation of international law, the violation of the un charter. so as i said, should be condemned by the international community and by the united states. but the united states itself is a country that perhaps has most violated international law in recent years. and it continues to violate international law even today. so when we look at the invasion of iraq in 2003, when we look at the invasion of afghanistan in 2001, when we look at ongoing support for israel, which greatly violates international law even to the point of murdering journalists

and cold blood so there can be no question that the u. s. isn't doing this because it is suddenly found some deep respect for human rights law and international law, right? it's doing this for its own reasons, many of which have to do with the stabilizing russia to make, maintain u. s. had gemini and dominance. and that's not a, you know, saying that is not a conspiracy theory. so if we look back at the, the national security documents of the post world war 2 era, we see that maintaining dominance and germany is the official us policy on for u. s. foreign policy, the number one objective. and has been, as i say, since about 950. so russia to their credit when it saw what the us id in libby i think particularly but even perhaps before that 2017 has made with the financial crisis. they anticipated that something like this might happen. so they sort of big, they anticipated that a conflict with the u. s. block may happen. so they took steps to sort of make

themselves sort of sanction proof. and the sanctions which were meant to hurt russia perhaps, or less effective than it might have been, had been implemented before. 2007 or 2008 now. so we're not long after the war began, the buyer administration launched a major campaign to isolate russia, at least economically, that we saw by way of government sanctions like sanctions on critical major russian state own enterprises or prohibiting new investments in the russian federation as well as influence of the private sector, multinational corporations like mcdonald and nike, pulling out of the federation e, you states and entities followed suit. but we didn't see the same type of response coming from asian states or those in the southern hemisphere. why didn't we see there were same response out of them? well, i think it, it gets back to this question of hypocrisy. i mean, i didn't see, you know, people pulling out of the u. s. when the us invaded iraq or when the u. s. a

because they did have cornerstone. i don't see tears being shed wars ongoing on the african continent in central african republic in the democratic republic of congo and so on. many of these wars have points of origin in sort of european con, complex that were started when your opinions occupied this continent. so i think asking, and this is pretty much, quoting the south african position here, asking countries like south africa to take a position in european context. doesn't make much sense when the u. s. isn't really taking up per position on the issues that are important to south africa, for example. so, you know, and we can extend that even to foreign policy. we've seen that south africa would like to take a much stronger stand on, for example, the issue of the, the occupation of palestine, but it gets no support from the united states. so in that context, why should countries like south africa, you know, between the u. s. line, right, it's almost as if they think, well, if you're not paying attention to what we have to say, why should we pay attention to what you're beckoning us for when you need us. now,

what about the, the u. s. being disappointed from the response by china who has maintained, you know, something of a policy of strategic ambiguity. i think that's the, the term for 2022 on this war like china abstained from voting in the march. un general assembly resolution condemning russia for its action and ukraine. the chinese have actually issued stern words about biden's handling of this war, and it sanctions against russia instead, seeing as china is the 2nd largest economy in the world. therefore, the biggest player in bricks does china's position on the war in ukraine. does that reflect the sentiment of the other member states? do you think? yeah, i mean, here i think we have to, we have to just be brutally honest with ourselves. and to say that the bricks as a block never really function like a block, and after recent elections, i mean,

even be not the reason election. somebody's been there 89 years both and has been there 5 or 6 years, right? so, so after those elections, i don't think the bricks function like a political block at all. so and i think within the break, you have brazil, hon sonora, who's seems to be open the, asking us for help winning the upcoming election brazilian election against his rival lula. and of course, you have russia itself in bricks and then you have india, which would like to keep close ties both to russia and to the u. s. and i think china is on a whole different level, because as you say, it's the 2nd largest or by some measures even the largest economy in the world, but certainly the 2nd largest economy in the world. so it's a different, you know, these countries function differently for different reasons. yes, they all seem to be by and large following this line of strategic ambiguity. but i suspect that with a little bit of pressure, you know, brazil for example, could be persuaded to take more. you pay us dance, india, and even south africa,

i think, you know, are, are vulnerable to changing their stance if circumstances warranted. the question would be if they change their stance individually or as a block, what would they get in return? and i don't think the us is willing to, i mean, i don't think wilson with us is willing to, doesn't see this as a negotiation. i think they just see, you should tell our lie to get nothing for an exchange. and if that's the u. s. citizen, then no, no one will be changing their line. but if the us is willing to bargain to negotiate, then yes it's, it's quite possible that somebody's countries may change their line, right? kind of a, you scratch our back and we'll scratch yours. now, as far as south africa is concerned, the south african ambassador to russia, ambassador, or mac a took up, has raised concerns that the u. s. might implement some sort of bill that might harm the cooperate between cape town and moscow. he also worries that european nations might fall in line with the u. s. what do you suppose he is referring to?

as russia and south africa are concerned? what coercive measures might he be worried about the us doing against south africa? i mean, i think the big threat is this question of sanctions and trade and so on. and how is this howard's trade going to be effected? so russia is not by no means the biggest trading part of partner south africa, about about half a $1000000000.00 in trade goes from russia to south africa, and about the same amount goes from south africa to russia. and if you look at what south africa actually importing from russia, it's a lot of like, staple foods like, especially wheat, right? and as you know, the price of bread is something that all governments are worried about major revolutions. i'm going back to 1789 and the french revolution, but also in egypt more recently in 2011, these revolutions have been sparked by the price of bread going up, you know, 10200 or, or sometimes a 1000 percent. right? so when we're talking about, you know, the sanctions we're talking about perhaps shipments being stopped,

as we've already seen, to some extent. and we've seen food inflation to some extent already hitting if it goes higher. so i think it's not just south africa, but the entire world should be worried about the, the ramifications of this war. absolutely, certainly a lot of things to still hash out as it pertains to this new multi polar world that we're dealing with. and this ongoing war between russia and ukraine, samir dasani of peace vigil dot net and the university of western cape. thank you so much for weighing in on this for us today. and when we return, we'll take a look at the possible expansion of bricks and what this could be for us relations in south america. with a critically acclaimed author and international journalist, you won't want to miss it, so stay tuned to the ammo will be right back. ah,

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with will ban in the european union. the kremlin. yup. machine estate aunt rush up to date and split. ortiz spoke neck, given our video agency, roughly all band on you to send me to school with ah, with the 2020 bricks virtual summit now behind us this year, hosted by beijing chinese president, she can ping underscore the importance of the group to remain open. he says,

and to welcome like minded partners to join the bricks family. this, as the economic block showed resilience in the face of the coven, 19 pandemic. with the chinese government displaying data from the 1st 5 months of 2022 showing china's total import export with other bricks. members growing a resounding 12 point one percent, year over year with a 20 percent rise in trade with russia and up 10 percent with india. and this year, a non member state was invited to sit in on the summit. argentina is said to be considered for membership. president, alberto fernandez, expressing cain interest to join. but western observer say this is a distant dream, citing the bad timing for a 2nd south american country to join the block. due to the conflict between russia and ukraine as the 5 major emerging economies, brazil, russia, india, china, and south africa are looking at expanding their membership to other countries. how

does a growing bricks dominance? compare to other economic powers like the u. s. r international correspondent has the analysis. the growth of bricks has highlighting the importance of countries outside of the west in the development of strategies for mutual trade health on counterterrorism. this year's 14th break some meet theme was foster high quality breaks partnership, or sure, in a new era for global development. but on the side of the mean break scattering. briggs plus meeting took place with officials from congress, like the united arab emirates, saudi arabia, egypt, cassock, us and indonesia, argentina, nigeria, synagogue, and thailand and bells were ringing for argentina hoping to become the newest, permanent member of the group. but why would argentina bring to the table if

a brick saw is created? this is not the 1st time argentina has joined that multilateral summit. the country participated in 20182014 as a guest. the current conversation has been on the table for some time, but during the 14 summit in became even more relevant recent declarations of the argentine unprecedented for the man. this made it explicit their desire to join as a precedent set. argentina was to join the space and offers its contribution as a member of it. and he added that. that is the to tional an economic weight of the brakes can become a factor of financial stability. and unprecedented fernandez, tweeter account. he said, joining briggs would be paving away to a new piece for future. argentine is bolstering their relationship with briggs countries as president fernandez med days later in person with

a prime minister of india, strengthening their economic relations by exporting products like sunflower, oil and soybean to the asian country. a trade that amounts up to $5600000000.00 us dollars. argentina's relationship with other bricks members is looking into that future as well. there is no doubt that china has been investing in south american countries, specially with argentina. between may 2021 a may 2022. the exports of china have increase by 49.4 percent, while in force increase up to $513000000.00. other chinese projects include the renovation of the bill, grenlock, i guess railway connected to the shyness belt and road initiative, and that co shandey solar park. consider latin america's largest solar plant. perhaps what's comes to mind with

a future breaks that is the current political stage of russia you seen now in regard to the ongoing russian or crane in conflict. argentina has been somewhat ambiguous precedent for the man this asked for peaceful dialogue and political solution. and none use of force and argentina's foreign minister santiago, feudal doesn't consider sanctions a mechanism to achieve peace. as he said in a press conference in april where brasil as one of the 5 members of brakes. all eyes are of how either another south american member would benefit the already strong economic and political front. then emerged in 2009 breaks or breaks saw only time will tell for the m o, i am brooklyn of salon. and here to weigh in on what the addition of another latin america country to the bricks line up could mean is steve gill. he is

an attorney and ceo of gil media and nashville, tennessee based public affairs, media, and marketing company. he also happened to serve as the director of inter governmental affairs for the us trade representative's office. thank you so much for being with us today. steve. first, can you address for us the whitely hood of argentina joining bricks because western critics say this is a distant dream and point out that argentina would be jockeying for the same business deals that brazil, which is a sitting member already has with china and india. there referencing things like soybean exports. what do you say to that? is there room in the block for a 2nd south american state? i think there certainly room and from an economic standpoint, i think it would be beneficial to all the bricks. nation. yeah, because the acronym is the initials of different countries are going to have to start working on how they renamed bricks are expanded with a brick. so i guess if they add up, you know, if that, that you've got brazil that has really been focus more on development of their

technological and industrial expansion. and not even though they're doing agriculture, i don't think that the brazilians will really see argentina as a tough competitor in the agriculture arena, when they're really looking at how they get expanded and more technology got embry or they've got airlines, they've got some space technology, they're trying to develop so i think as the brazilians look at it, they won't really see argentine as a competitor, but maybe a good ally and expanded throughout the south american region. so you say plenty of room for another member. now what is the argentina stand again by joining bricks? i mean, any benefits that would differ from what they get from the g 20. well, argentina is obviously a strong beef producer and china directly coming out of the cupboard restrictions is still seeing an expansion in their demand for b. right now they get a lot from chile, they get a lot from australia. they aren't getting as much in these days. from from the u. s . and the demand for beef in, in joe and china is actually much more to,

to boil it rather than to have it real like steaks. like a lot of folks do. so you have a different demand for the type of be products and using the whole cow, so to speak. so i think argentina could certainly benefit from the expansion of their beef exports into china among others. yeah, definitely. none of that animal goes to waste outside of the u. s. steve. now, earlier this year on an official trip to europe, president fernandez of argentina told the german d w news outlet that he thinks of himself as an argent time european ist. and that china, despite being a great economist, power, has very little cultural ties with latin america has no history there. does this lend any insight into what he thinks about the block, especially as china was the chair country to this year's brick summit? you know, it's in stay nearly 30 years ago when i was a director of intergovernmental affairs to the trade representative during the last of the 1st bush white house. first of clinton,

i and other proponents were really encouraging the us to look more north south, not to abandon the east west perspective economically better, really look more north and south and expand and america is kind of trading partner the time we were seeing. the brits in europe do sort of the predecessor to the economic union of the you. i felt that others did that if we had expanded our view more south, you could have created an economic trading giant of south central and north america . and unfortunately that didn't happen. so i think that the argentine frozen is exactly right that if argentine are good perhaps take the lead and follow a european model and try to gather more of the south american central american countries together is trading partners. i think you could see an economic boom and, wow, if we had done that 30 years ago at economic prosperity in the south, you know the plot of illegals into the u. s. they're not coming here because they want to be americans. but because there's lack of prosperity in their own countries, if we had expanded that prosperity south 30 years ago, it would be

a model of how to do the, the world economic and political balance in a north south view rather than just east west. now on that note, steve, the last thing here, given china's official position on the war in ukraine, is neutral president. she has struck strong words against america sanctions that have have global consequences and a lot of blow back, at least economically we're seeing so far. china has not back down from they're not so tacit backing of russia. final thoughts on that? well, i think, you know, you look at the sanctions and the fact that they have not really heard russia, they've heard america and the global economy a lot more than they've heard russia. russia is looking for new markets for their oil exports. china is desperately wanting oil, they're call. so i think there's a, there's a cultural affinity is being built on economics right now. and that is not necessary . good. again, for america, or maybe even for the globe, because again,

china is aggressions throughout the world are gonna continue. and i think after this, ukraine war comes to an end, you're gonna have to reset a lot of things, including the role of russia with europe. the role of china in the u. s. there's going to be a lot of a fix up make up. there's going to have to happen after this war is finally concluded. at some point. yeah, they're going to have to look beyond just the next few months here, the vinyl administration. that is, and perhaps maybe pick up a phone call from steve gill. i always appreciate your expertise steve, gil, thank you so much. thanks, michelle. ah, that's going to do it for this week's episode of modus operandi there show that dig deep into foreign policy. i'm your host manila chan. thank you for tuning in. we'll see you again next week to figure out the ammo. a

question to leads. essentially, problems give a blank check to continue nato proxy war against russian businesses and consumers are now saying not so fast. the west believe russia would quickly collapse under the weight of sanctions. instead, it is the west, but if we europe facing a small do it, is this the best of both? no issue. but for the mobile user, annual g d p per capita is about $4000.00 euros. the la garza, we've got drugs calling in a mobile with wants to ship a coffee seal from corpus really to put them in your presence for your mobile home to come out,

please note your littlest out there. the single thought of unemployment is off the chance. moldova territorial integrity and sovereignty. we respect the country which enjoys financial support from the u. s. and the who is constantly robbed by political and corruption scandals. oh, but old didn't scope mo, google obtaining you candidate status in 2022. ah, a while we have which are ours we make, you know, let you to really care about me. if you care about the play. i wish somebody could just tell me why they're all hatred, lynching, beating poverty,

why supremacy is disgusting. amber. the people in mississippi voted on a flyer, and 65 percent of the people voted to keep the car for our purposes to defend the good name. and the confederates held because of these monuments that you see everywhere or not. can they not monuments to the confederate government? there monuments to the soldiers to the battery. you know, if we're going to be offended by everything, every negative part of our history, we have to get rid of everything a the united states in many western countries setting title of irrationality. and i basically call that what the u. s. is but you know, the u. s. position visa be sanctioned as a kind of mania. they keep repeating the same actions and actually doing this because they want to show that they still do the work. but in fact, every,

especially against russia, every sanction to having boss has shown that the line, how much they don't, a ah strengthening ties as washer becomes new, delhi is taught oil, supplier, india foreign ministers, that to visit moscow to be my last relation ah, with the t v long must go do americans to vote republican in tuesday's mid term elections that i think holds the shed power in washington. south western countries opposed to use more electric car africans are the ones doing the heavy lifting to keep those vehicles running on people in the democratic republic of the congo se then miners are being exploited. finally develop they came here with.