by Mark Jones

LONDON (Reuters) – European Investment Bank (EIB) President Werner Hoyer says the West risks losing the trust of southern countries if it does not step up its support efforts. time when China and Russia have become more than fallback solutions.

“The fact that more and more developing countries, especially in Africa, are looking to countries like China and other emerging nations for support rather than traditional Western institutions, should be cause for concern.” , Werner Hoyer told Reuters on the sidelines of the BRICS summit.

The bloc, made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, is holding a summit in Pretoria and is due to discuss enlargement as some members want it as a counterweight to the West, notably via its New Development Bank, seen as an alternative to traditional institutions.

The EIB is an institution financed by the 27 Member States of the European Union (EU) and is one of the largest multilateral development banks in the world with investments of up to 10 billion euros per year in developing countries. development, via its EIB World branch.

Werner Hoyer added that the growing number of nations that have adopted a neutral attitude towards the Russian invasion of Ukraine was also a source of concern.

“Recent votes at the UN General Assembly have already made it clear that we risk losing the trust of the countries of the South unless we act with more visibility,” he added.

The summit on sustainable development organized at the United Nations next month will be a good opportunity for Western institutions to show their good will and their capacity to support the poorest countries, added Werner Hoyer.

The interest in the enlargement of the BRICS and its New Development Bank can be explained by the fact that many developing countries “felt abandoned” by the West in the face of their problems of debt, energy costs, climate change or during the COVID-19 pandemic, he also said.

Based in Shanghai, the New Development Bank was founded in 2015 by BRICS member states. Bangladesh, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt have joined while countries such as Uruguay, Saudi Arabia, Argentina and Zimbabwe are in talks to become a member.

“It’s symptomatic of what Europe and Western institutions have to deal with quickly,” Werner Hoyer said of the bank’s popularity.

“If we do not offer a sincere and more convincing partnership to respond to the challenges of the countries of the South in terms of energy transition, debt and health inequalities, we are running counter to big problems”, he said. he concluded.

(Reporting by Marc Jones; Zhifan Liu, editing by Kate Entringer)

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