Schiller Institute Conference in Paris: Rebuilding the World in the BRICS Era

On June 13 and 14, 2015, eminent representatives of three of the five countries which make up the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa)—and of countries associated with them, were invited to Paris, to speak at an exceptional international conference of the Schiller Institute on the theme: “Rebuilding the World in the BRICS Era.”

The aim of this conference, which gathered about 500 people, was to bring to France and to Europe, the winds of progress now blowing over the BRICS and their allies. This will help Europe rise against an international order which has nothing more to offer, other than the return of Empires; the war of all against all; and the systematic looting of populations and public goods.

The conference sharply attacked the Malthusianism spread by the “climate change” swindle, and the UN Climate Change conference (COP 21) currently being organized in France. That Malthusianism is the mortal enemy of the development of the BRICS and of the rest of the planet.

War, or Peace through Economic Development

Helga Zepp-LaRouche, founder and president of the Schiller Institute, keynoted the conference by outlining the perils ahead of us. These are a financial crisis that could rapidly turn into an implosion of the system, as we move toward the final issue of the Greek crisis by the end of June; and the growing threat of war, including nuclear war, against Russia and China. The source for that war drive in the Anglo-American camp is the neo-conservative ideology of the Project for a New American Century (PNAC), which proclaims that no other power should be allowed to rival the global power of the British Empire’s Anglo-American relationship.

Zepp-LaRouche, however, was optimistic in presenting the BRICS, the New Silk Road of Chinese President Xi Jinping, and the Eurasian Economic Union, as the alternatives to those dangers. She also noted that for at least 25 years, her institute has been contributing to build those alternatives, by proposing, since the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall, an international order of peace through mutual development for the Twenty-First Century—based on the launching of infrastructure corridors across Eurasia.

Russia, China, and India

The representatives of Russia, China, and India (the three of BRICS countries present at the conference, since Brazil and South Africa could not send representatives), gave the conference a sensuous idea of the “polycentric” world, the embryo of the new, more just international economic order that they are fighting for. It is now coming into being at breathtaking speed.

Speakers included Leonid Kadyshev, Minister Counselor of the Russian Embassy in Paris; Professor Shi Ze of the China Institute of International Studies in Beijing; and former Indian Ambassador Viswanathan, Senior Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation, who is the coordinator of all its activities connected with the BRICS.

The Ambassador of Iran to France, his Excellency Ali Ahani, also sent a message, indicating that the Islamic Republic of Iran is “willing and ready to cooperate with the BRICS countries in order to contribute its aid and cooperation to the solution of regional and world problems.”

The two days of intense discussions included hundreds of Frenchmen, and delegations from Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Spain, Italy, Australia, Poland, Romania, Russia, China, and Peru, among other countries. Participants understood that they were not attending any ordinary conference, but rather were participating in an ongoing international fight for their survival and that of the human race.