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this post was submitted on 17 Jan 2026
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Easier to say “everyone but the US and possibly NK.”
Brazil, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Russian Federation, South Africa, United Arab Emirates. But India and Brazil want the economic benefits without participating in security drills.
Brazil and India are among the founders of BRICS They are the B and I of the acronym.
The cooperation is economic and has no defense aspect AFAIK. So what BRICS related security drills would that be?
But when Brazil and India aren't in that, it's per definition not BRICS, the article state the exercise is by 3 BRICS members, but it is not BRICS. BRICS is way bigger now than the original 5 members.
Calling this a BRICS exercise is exclusively something that exist in the head of the author of the article, and there is absolutely zero reference to any BRICS defense pact.
Even if China, Russia, and South Africa make a defense pact, it is per definition not BRICS without including Brazil and India.
I don't agree. We still call NATO NATO, although I believe it's effectively toast.
Because formally NATO is still NATO.
China, Russia, and South Africa are not BRICS and nothing in the article you linked indicated the exercise had anything to do with the BRICS cooperation that is 100% economic.
Neither India nor Brazil want BRICS to become a Global South equivalent to NATO and instead see it as a forum for economic cooperation so their actions match their intentions.
The lead nation was China with Russia and Iran also participating in the most recent military exercise. Brazil likely would not want to participate given their proximity to the US and India is already part of other security partnerships (Quad).
I understand, it's a delicate situation; I hope Brazil is taking some sort of security preparation because of their proximity to the United States.
How about instead of trading dependency on one country for another, you start manufacturing your own goods?
Isolationism isn't the solution. The world needs to be better at working together, not splitting apart.
We can have both a local manufacturing sector and imports.
The last few years have shown us that we need to produce stuff here because the supply chain can explode and were caught with our pants down.
I hate to break it to you, but a lot of these countries aren’t interested in “working together”. In fact they want to sell you something for cheap, get you hooked, and put your own means of production and any competition out of business. This makes you dependent on them, and they can then use this to hike up prices, and exert political control.
There’s no reason Canada can’t make its own cars. Or computer chips. Or food. Or drugs. Etc etc. Relying on a single external source for a good or service really screws you over when that country goes to war, or goes nuts.
It’s not about isolationism. It’s about making sure there is competition to keep prices down, and making sure there is more than one source to get these goods and services from.
There’s no reason Canada can’t make its own cars. Or computer chips.
Sure if you're talking at least a 10x on the price of equivalent consumer goods, which isn't going to drive prices down whatsoever. China both subsidises manufacturing AND devalues their currency to keep manufacturing costs low and exports high. There's no way to do that in the Canadian economy or any single western economy without either tanking it (huge deflation) or saddling the country with so much debt to invest into the industries and then subsidise long enough to be cost competitive that it would never be able to make the credit repayments.
Well then, I guess we should all just become slaves to China since it’s not worth putting a fight. 🙄
Equalizing the playing field was part of the legislation that Canada just got rid of in order to import cheap (subsidized and possibly made with slave labor) Chinese cars.
Someone else mentioned the US. We had those industries in the US, and we let them wither on the vine. Now we can’t manufacture cars because one of the controller chips is single sourced and the country that it comes from is tied up in some sort of “geopolitical tension”. Our clothes are made in sweatshops by slave labor. And many of our generic drugs are coming from countries that don’t have quality standards so they don’t work at all, or worse they actually make people sick. But hey, at least they’re cheap!
You can get Chinese prices if your citizens are willing to work like the Chinese, no one in the West will.
Autarky is also largely a degrowth argument, most Westerners already feel like they should consume even more so it's impossible to win unless your voters fall for Donald Trump esque arguments. The modern Westerner lives one of the most opulent lives in the world history on the back of cheap third world labor.
edit: If you believe the Trump admin has a plan, they are trying to thread needle by devaluing the US Dollar just enough to incentivize manufacturing, but keeping it high enough that the average US consumer doesn't feel the hit. They then leverage tariffs for preferential trade deals with other countries. I don't think its really working but its the only way you could revitalize manufacturing in the west at this point
I definitely do not think the Trump administration has a plan, other than to bankrupt the US.
I will never understand how its cheaper to:
- cut down lumber in Canada
- put it on a ship to China
- have a Chinese factory make furniture out of it
- put the furniture on a ship and send it back to Canada
The labor is cheaper there sure, but all the shipping back and forth should have evened some of that out. It’s nuts to me.
We'll let you know how that goes.
- USA
Canada wants to be 1st in North America to build EV with Chinese knowledge: senior official
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-electric-car-china-tariffs-trump-united-states-9.7049950
In truth, sometimes, you just cant. Why is US so hell bent on Canada and Greenland? Rare earths. Taiwan produces something like 80% of all chips made for electronics.
I believe it's in every state's interest to invest in manufacturing, as well as having trade and development sharing with others, but exploititive agreements that rob another state and make it a defacto colony, or subject the people to austerity, sanctions, overly burdensome loans (imf/wto), or create dependency rather than self-sufficiency is just another form of rent-seeking and grounds for expulsion of the exploiting states, and nationalization of any industry benefitting from the exploitation (including poisoning the air, water, soil).
Canada has always been a trading nation. We have loads of raw materials, it’s been this way since before Canada was a country.
And? Even fucking Saudi Arabia is trying to branch out.
Canada needs to think ahead and start building infrastructure now for the future in parallel to just selling raw materials.
Too hard. Best offer is more resource extraction, ologopolies and housing bubbles. Final offer.
Bye Felicia.
Oh Canada, we never deserved you. Liberty's speed to you all
Damn right. We are done with the US. The US is dead to us and it’s generational.
Same here, responding from Denmark.
Meeting back up at the reunion in 3 (to 10 years)
"Oh... hi Canada! You're looking well."
"Gah!!... Soree but do I... Oh, USA? Kinda snuck up on me there... It's been a while. You uh, you look... different. Didn't quite recognize you with your new...tear drop tattoos? Also, did you do something to your hair?"
"Oh this? No, it kinda just happened suddenly all at once. Apparently it's called canities subita..."