JOHANNESBURG: Leaders of the BRICS emerging economies — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — will meet in Johannesburg this week, with the threat of a worsening global trade war topping the agenda.
US President Donald Trump’s hardening stance has compounded fears of an all-out trade war after he slapped levies on goods from China worth tens of billions of dollars as well as tariffs on steel and aluminum from the EU, Canada and Mexico.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, China’s President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend the annual three-day summit opening in Johannesburg on Wednesday.
Earlier this month, China said that it would step up cooperation with other developing nations like the BRICS grouping to counter “trade protectionism.”
China on Monday rejected accusations by Trump that it was manipulating the yuan to give its exporters an edge, saying Washington appeared “bent on provoking a trade war.”
Trump has said he is ready to impose tariffs on all $500 billion of China imports, complaining that China’s trade surplus with the US is due to unfair currency manipulation.
“As to the US being bent on provoking a trade war, China does not want a trade war but is not afraid,” China’s foreign ministry spokesman said when asked about Trump’s threat to impose the across-the-board tariffs on Chinese goods.
Russian Economy Minister Maxim Oreshkin said last week ahead of the Johannesburg meeting that “this summit is about the context — we are at a time when the US and China announce new measures almost every week.”
He said much of the discussions with China would likely focus on what is happening with the US.
“This is a trade war, so leaders’ discussions are particularly important in coordinating our positions,” said Oreshkin.
Sreeram Chaulia, of the Jindal School of International Affairs outside Delhi, said BRICS leaders would “concur that the US has unleashed punitive trade wars that are hurting all the BRICS members.”
“They have a collective interest in promoting intra-BRICS trade. The urgency this time is greater,” he said.
The BRICS group, comprising more than 40 percent of the global population, represents some of the biggest emerging economies, but has struggled to find a unified voice — as well as achieving sharply different growth rates.
Analysts say US trade policy could give the group some renewed momentum.
“Trade agreements between associations of countries like BRICS have become increasingly important given the self-seeking, and ultimately short-sighted, barriers to trade that are being instigated by the US,” Kenneth Creamer, an economist at Johannesburg’s Wits University, told AFP.
“South Africa, and Africa more broadly, can benefit from increasing exports to fast growing countries like India and China. BRICS has the strategic potential to re-shape world trade.”
The trade war risk also dominated a meeting of Group of 20 finance ministers and central bankers at the weekend in Buenos Aires, while International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde again spoke out against the tit-for-tat tariffs.
China’s President Xi was due to hold bilateral talks with South African Cyril Ramaphosa on Tuesday after visiting Senegal and Rwanda as part of a whistle-stop tour to cement relations with African allies.
Signaling diplomatic rivalry over influence in Africa, India’s Narendra Modi is visiting Rwanda and Uganda on his own five-day tour of the continent including the BRICS summit.
Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan will also attend a summit as the current chair of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). Erdogan will reportedly meet Putin on the summit’s sidelines.
European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker travels to Washington on Wednesday to meet Trump as part of the EU’s effort to head off a trade war.
Trade war risk to dominate BRICS summit in South Africa
Trade war risk to dominate BRICS summit in South Africa
- Earlier this month, China said that it would step up cooperation with other developing nations like the BRICS grouping to counter ‘trade protectionism’
- The trade war risk also dominated a meeting of Group of 20 finance ministers and central bankers at the weekend in Buenos Aires
Saudi Arabia looks to Swiss-led geospatial AI breakthroughs
- IBM’s Zurich lab is shaping tools policymakers could use to protect ecosystems
ZURICH: For Gulf countries such as Saudi Arabia, AI-powered Earth observation is quickly becoming indispensable for anticipating climate risks, modeling extreme weather and protecting critical national infrastructure.
That reality was on display inside IBM’s research lab in Zurich, where scientists are advancing geospatial AI and quantum technologies designed to help countries navigate a decade of accelerating environmental volatility.
The Zurich facility — one of IBM’s most sophisticated hubs for climate modeling, satellite analytics and quantum computing — provides a rare look into the scientific foundations shaping how nations interpret satellite imagery, track environmental change and construct long-term resilience strategies.
For Saudi Arabia, where climate adaptation, space technologies and data-driven policy align closely with Vision 2030 ambitions, the lessons emerging from this work resonate with growing urgency.
At the heart of the lab’s research is a shift in how satellite data is understood. While traditional space programs focused largely on engineering spacecraft and amassing imagery, researchers say the future lies in extracting meaning from those massive datasets.
As Juan Bernabe-Moreno, director of IBM Research Europe for Ireland and the UK, notes, satellites ultimately “are gathering data,” but real impact only emerges when institutions can “make sense of that data” using geospatial foundation models.
These open-source models allow government agencies, researchers and local innovators to fine-tune Earth-observation AI for their own geography and environmental pressures. Their applications, Bernabe-Moreno explained, have already produced unexpected insights — identifying illegal dumping sites, measuring how mangrove plantations cool cities, and generating flood-risk maps “for places that don’t usually get floods, like Riyadh.”
The relevance for Saudi Arabia is clear. Coastal developments require precise environmental modeling; mangrove restoration along the Red Sea is a national priority under the Saudi Green Initiative; and cities such as Riyadh and Jeddah have recently faced severe rainfall that strained existing drainage systems.
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The ability to simulate these events before they unfold could help authorities make better decisions about zoning, infrastructure and emergency planning. Today’s satellites, Bernabe-Moreno said, provide “an almost real-time picture of what is happening on Earth,” shifting the challenge from collecting data to interpreting it.
This push toward actionable intelligence also reflects a larger transformation in research culture. Major advances in Earth observation increasingly depend on open innovation — shared data, open-source tools and transparent models that allow global collaboration. “Open innovation in this field is key,” Bernabe-Moreno said, noting that NASA, ESA and IBM rely on openness to avoid the delays caused by lengthy IP negotiations.
Saudi Arabia has already embraced this direction. Through SDAIA, KAUST and national partnerships, the Kingdom is moving from consuming global research to actively contributing to it. Open geospatial AI models, researchers argue, give Saudi developers the ability to build highly localized applications adapted to the region’s climate realities and economic priorities.
Beyond Earth observation, IBM’s Zurich lab is pushing forward in another strategic frontier: quantum computing. Though still in its early stages, quantum technology could reshape sectors from logistics and materials science to advanced environmental modeling.
Alessandro Curioni, IBM Research VP for Europe and Africa and director of the Zurich lab, stressed that quantum’s value should not be judged by whether it produces artificial general intelligence. Rather, it should be viewed as a tool to expand human capability.
“The value of computing is not to create a second version of myself,” he said, “it’s to create an instrument that allows me to be super-human at the things I cannot do.”
Curioni sees quantum not as a replacement for classical computing but as an extension capable of solving problems too complex for traditional machines — from simulating fluid dynamics to optimizing vast, interdependent systems. But he cautioned that significant challenges remain, including the need for major advances in hardware stability and tight integration with classical systems. Once these layers mature, he said, “the sky is the limit.”
DID YOU KNOW?
• Modern satellites deliver near real-time views of Earth’s surface.
• Geospatial foundation models transform vast satellite datasets into clear, actionable insights.
• These tools can produce flood-risk maps for cities such as Riyadh, analyze how mangroves cool urban areas, and even detect illegal dumping sites.
Saudi Arabia’s investments in digital infrastructure, sovereign cloud systems and advanced research institutions position the Kingdom strongly for the quantum era when enterprise-ready systems begin to scale. Curioni noted that Saudi Arabia is already “moving in the right direction” on infrastructure, ecosystem development and talent — the three essentials he identifies for deep research collaboration.
His perspective underscores a broader shift underway: the Kingdom is building not only advanced AI applications but a scientific ecosystem capable of sustaining long-term innovation. National programs now include talent development, regulatory frameworks, high-performance computing, and strategic partnerships with global research centers. Researchers argue that this integrated approach distinguishes nations that merely adopt technology from those that ultimately lead it.
For individuals as much as institutions, the message from Zurich is clear. As Curioni put it, those who resist new tools risk being outpaced by those who embrace them. Generative AI already handles tasks — from literature reviews to data processing — that once required days of manual analysis. “If you don’t adopt new technologies, you will be overtaken by those who do adopt them,” he said, adding that the goal is to use these tools “to make yourself better,” not to fear them.
From geospatial AI to emerging quantum platforms, the work underway at IBM’s Zurich lab reflects technologies that will increasingly inform national planning and environmental resilience.
For a country like Saudi Arabia — balancing rapid development with climate uncertainty — such scientific insight may prove essential. As researchers in Switzerland design the tools of tomorrow, the Kingdom is already exploring how these breakthroughs can translate into sustainability, resilience and strategic advantage at home.
