India-China ties can benefit world, send signal against US unilateralism: Jeffrey Sachs

• Indo-China ties aid world, balance US unilateralism.
• Sachs criticizes US dollar use, sees BRICS as alternative.
• BRICS should take clear stance on West Asia, Iran.

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American economist Jeffrey Sachs has said that improving relations between India and China could benefit the wider world, arguing that the two countries acting together would send a signal to Washington against unilateral military action.

In an interview with CNBC-TV18, Sachs said the combined scale of the Indian and Chinese markets made cooperation between the two countries particularly significant. He said a joint stance would signal resistance to what he described as American claims of unipolar dominance.

Sachs said continued tensions between the two countries allowed the United States greater room to manoeuvre geopolitically.

Sachs criticises US use of dollar
Sachs was critical of Washington’s use of the dollar in foreign policy, saying the United States had effectively declared economic war on countries that continued to do business with Iran.

He said the Trump administration had taken this approach to an extreme, but argued that broader American assertions of unipolarity were what made the BRICS grouping increasingly relevant.

Sachs said BRICS nations already possessed the technological capability to conduct trade without routing transactions through the dollar, and called on the bloc to move towards settling trade in local currencies. He suggested India and China should present themselves internationally as stable markets.

Sachs on upcoming BRICS summit
On the upcoming BRICS summit, Sachs said the stakes were high and that the grouping should take a clear position on the conflict in West Asia, including calling for the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.

He said BRICS should also back Iran and press for an end to what he called an illegal war.

On global governance, he said BRICS members should support the United Nations in the ongoing process to select its next Secretary-General.

Sachs on US-Canada tensions, midterm elections
Sachs also addressed tensions between the United States and Canada, saying pressure tactics against Ottawa would not succeed and that Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney was unlikely to back down.

On US domestic politics, Sachs predicted that Republicans would lose control of the House of Representatives in the upcoming midterm elections, leading to congressional investigations and subpoenas.

He described the current political climate in the United States as a constitutional crisis, and said he expected President Trump to become a weakened, lame-duck figure once the midterm results were in.