BRICS 2023-

Russian 2024 BRICS Chairmanship
On January 1, Russia was passed the baton of the BRICS chairmanship, an association which, according to the decision adopted by the 15th BRICS Summit in August 2022, now includes 10 countries. Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates joined BRICS as new full members which is a strong indication of the growing authority of the association and its role in international affairs.

1 December
Trump threat of 100% tariffs against BRICS nations raises trade war fears
President-elect threatens retaliation if emerging economies create new currency to rival US dollar
(The Guardian) Fears of a global trade war have risen after Donald Trump threatened to impose 100% tariffs on countries in the Brics group if they create a new currency to rival the US dollar.
Writing on his social media platform, Truth Social, on Saturday, Trump declared that he would also act if they supported another currency to replace the dollar.
“We require a commitment from these countries that they will neither create a new Brics currency nor back any other currency to replace the mighty US dollar or they will face 100% tariffs and should expect to say goodbye to selling into the wonderful US economy,” Trump said.
“They can go find another sucker. There is no chance that the Brics will replace the US dollar in international trade, and any country that tries should wave goodbye to America,” he added.

14 November
The BRICS Currency Charade
Barry Eichengreen
Expressions of dissatisfaction with the global dominance of the dollar go back at least to French finance minister Valéry Giscard d’Estaing in 1965. But even today, the euro is no challenger to the greenback, and no one should hold their breath waiting for the BRICS to unveil their own attempt at an alternative currency.
(Project Syndicate) Last month’s BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia, was, like all summits, heavy on photo ops. And it yielded a second act that was similarly heavier on symbolism than substance: the release of a report by the Russian finance ministry and central bank on “improvement of the international monetary and financial system,” by which Russian officials obviously meant “finding an alternative to the weaponized dollar.”
Policymakers in emerging markets have in fact offered a long list of possible substitutes for the dollar. None of their proposals has borne fruit. In 2009, People’s Bank of China (PBOC) Governor Zhou Xiaochuan suggested replacing dollar reserves with the International Monetary Fund’s Special Drawing Rights. It quickly became apparent that no one was particularly interested in holding, much less using, an artificial asset pegged to an arbitrary currency basket.
Chinese officials then embarked on a campaign to promote use of the renminbi in international payments. In fact, Chinese firms now settle a majority of their cross-border transactions in renminbi. Globally, however, the renminbi accounts for less than 6% of trade settlements, while Chinese capital controls and governance issues limit the currency’s utility for financial transactions.
… Then came proposals for a BRICS currency, constituted as a weighted average of existing BRICS currencies, or perhaps backed by gold or other commodities. But a BRICS basket currency was not a natural fit for any of its member countries’ exporters. With no BRICS equivalent of the European Central Bank, which manages the euro, or of the European Parliament, to which the ECB answers, fundamental questions – like who would manage it – remained unanswered.

25th BRICS Summit
22–24 October
Russian President Vladimir Putin hosts Summit
in the Russian city of Kazan.

24- 25 October
Five things we found out at this year’s BRICS summit
(International Intrigue) The yearly BRICS summit wrapped up in Russia yesterday (Thursday), ninja-starring dozens of new announcements out into the world before dropping a 32-page Joint Declaration that probably could’ve just been an email. …
INTRIGUE’S TAKE
The existence, messaging, and evolution of the BRICS group is all evidence of a problem with the international system: it still doesn’t make enough space for the Global South. But does BRICS also hold the solution? Even some BRICS leaders themselves seem doubtful — one of the voices consistently tapping the group’s brakes is India’s Modi, whose summit remarks were pretty direct in cautioning BRICS against “trying to replace global institutions” or giving off “divisive” vibes.
And with that kind of tension between the group’s two key members (China hitting the gas while India taps the brakes), it’s hard to see BRICS making meaningful progress. In the meantime, it offers a low-cost way for new members to signal their autonomy and get more access to world leaders. Though of course, each new member will only further complicate efforts to agree. And there are already disputes over who to even let in (Brazil just vetoed neighbouring Venezuela’s membership bid this week).
Also worth noting:
Some 36 states attended this year’s BRICS summit (including various BRICS partners).
Interestingly, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, which seems to be hovering somewhere in between BRICS membership and non-membership, skipped the summit in favour of a meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
BRICS summit: Key takeaways from the Kazan declaration
(Reuters) – Below are the key points from the Kazan declaration, opens new tab issued by the BRICS group after a summit in Russia.
ON UKRAINE:
“We emphasize that all states should act consistently with the Purposes and Principles of the UN Charter in their entirety and interrelation. We note with appreciation relevant proposals of mediation and good offices, aimed at a peaceful resolution of the conflict through dialogue and diplomacy.”
ON THE MIDDLE EAST:
“We reiterate our grave concern at the deterioration of the situation and humanitarian crisis in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, in particular the unprecedented escalation of violence in the Gaza Strip and in West Bank as a result
of the Israeli military offensive, which led to mass killing and injury of civilians, forced displacement and widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure.”
“We express alarm over the situation in Southern Lebanon. We condemn the loss of civilian lives and the immense damage to civilian infrastructure resulting from attacks by Israel in residential areas in Lebanon and call for immediate cessation of military acts.”
ON WESTERN SANCTIONS:
“We are deeply concerned about the disruptive effect of unlawful unilateral coercive measures, including illegal sanctions, on the world economy, international trade, and the achievement of the sustainable development goals.”
ON THE INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL SYSTEM’S REFORM:
“We underscore the need to reform the current international financial architecture to meet the global financial challenges including global economic governance to make the international financial architecture more inclusive and just.”
ON BRICS GRAIN EXCHANGE:
“We welcome the initiative of the Russian side
to establish a grain (commodities) trading platform within BRICS (the BRICS Grain Exchange) and to subsequently develop it including expanding it to other agricultural sectors.”
ON BRICS CROSS-BORDER PAYMENT SYSTEM:
“We recognise the widespread benefits of faster, low cost, more efficient, transparent, safe and inclusive cross-border payment instruments built upon the principle of minimizing trade barriers and non-discriminatory access. We welcome the use of local currencies in financial transactions between BRICS countries and their trading partners.”
… ON THE IMF:
“We reaffirm our commitment to maintaining a strong and effective Global Financial Safety Net with a quota-based and adequately resourced IMF at its centre.”
ON G20:
“We recognise the importance of the continued and productive functioning of the G20, based on consensus with a focus on result-oriented outcomes.”
ON PREVENTION OF FUTURE PANDEMICS:
“We support the initiatives of the BRICS R&D Vaccine Center, further development of the BRICS Integrated Early Warning System for preventing mass infectious diseases risks.”
ON BIG CATS:
“While appreciating the efforts of our countries to preserve rare species and noting the high vulnerability of big cats, we take note of the Republic of India’s initiative to create an International Big Cats Alliance and encourage BRICS countries to work together to make further contributions to the conservation of big cats.”

Putin ends BRICS summit that sought to expand Russia’s global clout but was shadowed by Ukraine
(AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin closed a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies on Thursday, praising its role as a counterbalance to what he called the West’s “perverse methods.”
The three-day summit in the city of Kazan was attended by leaders or representatives of 36 countries, highlighting the failure of United States-led efforts to isolate Russia over its actions in Ukraine.
The conflict came up repeatedly at the meeting, which saw the first visit to Russia from United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in more than two years and drew an angry reaction from Kyiv. Guterres called for “a just peace” in Ukraine, in line with the U.N. Charter, international law and General Assembly resolutions. He also urged an immediate end to the fighting in Gaza, Lebanon and Sudan.
The summit covered the deepening of financial cooperation, including the development of alternatives to Western-dominated payment systems, efforts to settle regional conflicts and expansion of the BRICS group of nations.
The alliance that initially included Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa when it was founded in 2009 has expanded to embrace Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. Turkey, Azerbaijan and Malaysia have formally applied to become members, and several other countries have expressed interest in joining.
The Kremlin touted the summit as “the largest foreign policy event ever held” by Russia.

21-22 October
Brics’ path to a fairer global system starts at home
For Brics nations to secure global reforms, they must build effective institutions, protect property rights and strengthen the rule of law
Winston Mok
(SCMP) Together, these nations represent more than 45 per cent of the world’s population and more than 30 per cent of global gross domestic product. However, the real significance of Brics lies in the grouping’s potential to reshape global governance, trade and finance.
While the Brics nations advocate more inclusive global institutions, their true economic competitiveness is predicated on effective domestic institutions. Research by Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James Robinson – this year’s Nobel laureates in economics – emphasises that inclusive institutions and strong rule of law are fundamental to sustained growth.

Putin plays host to 36 world leaders at Brics summit in Russia
West infuriated as UN secretary general accepts invitation to meeting of countries including China, India and Iran
(The Guardian) Vladimir Putin, ostracised by the west and labelled a possible war criminal by the international criminal court, has played host to 36 world leaders from nations including China, India and Iran as part of a summit of the Brics group designed to display Moscow as anything but isolated.
One of the main aims of the summit will be to speed up ways to reduce the number of dollar transactions, and so mitigate the US ability to use the threat of sanctions to seek to impose its political will.
The spokesperson for the UN secretary general confirmed António Guterres would attend the summit as he did last year. His decision infuriated many in the west, including the Ukrainian foreign ministry, since the international criminal court issued warrants for Putin’s arrest in March 2023 over the abduction of children. The UN said Guterres would repeat his view that the invasion of Ukraine is in breach of the UN charter.
Putin Brings Together Economies He Hopes Will Eclipse the West
The Russian leader hopes to use the meeting of the so-called BRICS group, which includes China and India, as a counterweight to the West.
(NYT) This week Russia is hosting the so-called BRICS group. The meeting, which begins Tuesday [22 October], has expanded this year to include Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates. BRICS now includes countries representing almost half the world’s population and more than 35 percent of global economic output, adjusted by purchasing power.
The conference is intended to present a hefty showcase of economic might but also entice new countries into a coalition Russia hopes to build that would form a new world order not dominated by the West.
“This summit is about Putin punching back,” said Alexander Gabuev, director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center in Berlin. Mr. Putin presents his country’s war in Ukraine as “the spearhead of destroying the old world order and helping to build a new one,” Mr. Gabuev said.
“And BRICs is the most potent and representative structure of this new world order,” he added.
… Beijing and Moscow are keen to see BRICS expand further, and the Kremlin invited representatives from another 20 countries who have expressed interest in membership to participate in this year’s summit.
Both capitals have pushed proposals to dramatically change the global financial system. At the previous summit, there was discussion of creating a BRICS currency, which did not materialize. This year the dominant proposal is for a BRICS payment system, known as BRICS Bridge, that would help Russia circumvent the issues it has had sending and receiving money in global commerce because of sanctions.

9-10 October
Whither the BRICS?
Ian Hill
On paper, BRICS is a heavy hitter. But differing goals could make the road ahead bumpy.
(Lowy Institute) It comes at a time when BRICS – comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China, and subsequently South Africa – faces an inflection point.
Emerging out of the 2007–09 global financial crisis as a group of major emerging economies, having been first dubbed by Goldman Sachs as major markets, the avowed objective of BRICS was to reform global financial architecture, seeking to make international financial institutions, especially the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, more representative, boosting the influence of developing countries, and lessening perceived Western dominance.
On paper, certainly, BRICS is a heavy hitter. It has size and weight, accounting for nearly 30 per cent of global GDP (even more, expressed in purchasing power parity terms) and 45 per cent of the world’s population. This masks, though, real asymmetries: China is responsible for nearly 70 per cent of BRICS’ economic output.
The ambition to reform global financial governance to reflect greater multipolarity remains a common denominator uniting BRICS members. They promote increased use of national currencies in their trade, reducing dependence on the US dollar, and seek an alternative global payments system, bypassing the SWIFT network. This particularly appeals to Russia, keen to obviate Western sanctions.
But it’s increasingly clear that BRICS members have divergent, and competing, objectives and visions for its future.
China and Russia see BRICS in more adversarial geopolitical terms, beyond its global governance reform aspirations. They see BRICS as offering a counterweight to the G7, challenging the US-led rules-based order. Its emergence reflects the “transformation of global governance architecture and world order” and moves towards a “redistribution of power in the world”.
On the other hand, India and Brazil remain focused on BRICS primarily as a means of advancing reform of the international order to reflect genuine multipolarity and give large developing countries greater influence.
Russia promoting BRICS expansion as dozens of countries apply to join in counterweight to West
(Globe & Mail) Moscow is pushing for another expansion of the fast-growing BRICS group of countries at a summit in Russia this month, touting the organization as the emerging “global majority” at a time of Western decline.
Dozens of countries from four continents have reportedly submitted their membership applications for consideration at the summit – including, for the first time, a NATO member state: Turkey.
As many as 10 additional countries could be approved by the nine-member bloc at its annual summit in Kazan, Russia (Oct. 22 to 24), although the latest wave of newcomers might be classified as “partner countries” rather than full members.

24 September
The Battle for the BRICS
Why the Future of the Bloc Will Shape Global Order
By Alexander Gabuev and Oliver Stuenkel
(Foreign Affairs) The meeting is set to be a moment of triumph for its host, Russian President Vladimir Putin, who will preside over this gathering of an increasingly hefty bloc even as he prosecutes his brutal war in Ukraine. The group’s acronym comes from its first five members—Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa—but it has now grown to include Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates. Saudi Arabia also participates in the group’s activities, but it has not formally joined. Together, these ten countries represent 35.6 percent of global GDP in purchasing power parity terms (more than the G-7’s 30.3 percent) and 45 percent of the world’s population (the G-7 represents less than ten percent). In the coming years, BRICS is likely to expand further, with more than 40 countries expressing interest in joining, including emerging powers such as Indonesia.
… Russia’s ties to its fellow BRICS members China and India have allowed the regime to weather the Western sanctions campaign. But U.S. sanctions on Russia still affect those countries that don’t intend to punish the Kremlin for the war in Ukraine. U.S. pressure forced many Chinese banks, for example, to end transactions with Russian counterparts this year, thereby disrupting payment schemes and increasing transaction costs for Russian importers. Moscow was troubled to discover that Washington’s toolkit affects not only payments in U.S. dollars but even those in Chinese yuan. Those punitive restrictions also apply to the NDB, which Russia had hoped would serve as a source of funding as Western sanctions shut off other avenues, but the BRICS bank has frozen all projects in Russia. …

15 September
Iran’s President to attend BRICS summit in Russia
(Reuters) – Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian will attend the upcoming BRICS summit in Russia, state media cited Tehran’s ambassador in Moscow as saying on Sunday, amid tensions with the West over military cooperation between the two countries.

3 September
Russia confirms attendance of 18 leaders invited to BRICS summit
(Prensa Latina) A total of 18 out of 36 leaders invited to the BRICS summit in Russia have already confirmed their participation, reported presidential advisor Yuri Ushakov.

6 June
BRICS+: Towards a New International Order?
Interview – Le point de vue de Jean-Joseph Boillot
(IRIS) …the BRICS+ are a fairly heterogeneous group. All it takes, as we saw in Argentina, is for Javier Milei, a pro-American liberal, to be elected to leave this group. But what is interesting is to see that, even with the Indian elections, the results of which returned Narendra Modi with a small majority, most of the countries of the so-called ‘Global South’ are fundamentally united, with a strong internal consensus to finally free themselves from the Western international order known as Bretton Woods. So, with one or two exceptions, there can be changes of government without undermining this very strong consensus. And while some would like to see the BRICS+ as a confrontational anti-Western club, in reality it is clear that, with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt joining the group recently, the consensus is more along the lines of multi-alignment, rather like India, which has recently moved closer to the United States without severing its relations with Russia, for example. For the time being at least, elections in the developing world do not seem to be challenging this majority consensus in the South, and I am not talking about fake elections like the one in Russia with the election of Putin.

2023

3 November
How BRICS Became a Club That Others Want to Join
By Tom Hancock and Michael Cohen
(Bloomberg) The BRICS group of emerging market nations — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — has gone from a slogan dreamed up at an investment bank two decades ago to a real-world club that controls a multilateral lender. Now it’s undergoing an enlargement that would pair some of the planet’s largest energy producers with some of the biggest consumers among developing countries, potentially enhancing the group’s economic clout in a US-dominated world. … In August, invitations were extended to Saudi Arabia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Argentina, Ethiopia and Egypt to join in 2024.
… The biggest achievements of the group have been financial. The countries agreed to pool $100 billion of foreign currency reserves, which they can lend to each other during emergencies. That liquidity facility became operational in 2016. They founded the New Development Bank — a World Bank-inspired institution that has approved almost $33 billion of loans — mainly for water, transport and other infrastructure projects — since it began operations in 2015. (South Africa borrowed $1 billion in 2020 to fight the Covid-19 pandemic.)
31 August
BRICS’ Silence on Taliban: The World Must Not Abandon Afghanistan & Its Women
While BRICS has priority issues, it’s undeniable the RIC nations abandoned the Afghan issue in their deliberations.
C Uday Bhaskar
(The Quint) Afghan women were dealt yet another body blow by the Taliban regime which declared that women were not observing the hijab regulations inside parks in the prescribed manner and hence, would be forbidden from entering such recreation spots. … Ironically, this draconian restriction was announced on a day – traditionally celebrated in the USA as ‘Women’s Equality Day’ – to commemorate the granting of voting rights to women in 1920.
Afghanistan Isn’t Brought Up in BRICS
In keeping with this erasure of the Afghan woman from the larger global consciousness, it was both intriguing and disappointing that there was no reference at all to Afghanistan in the recently concluded BRICS summit in South Africa.
The 94-paragraph document comprising 9276 words touched upon various issues and some of the troubled conflict-ridden regions of the world – but Afghanistan was missing.
It merits recall that at the BRICS 2021 summit chaired by India, Afghanistan received empathetic notice from the five-member group (Brazil, Russia, China, and South Africa being the other four), and at that time, the leaders sought an “inclusive intra-Afghan dialogue so as to ensure stability, civil peace, law, and order.”

26 August
BRICS, Modi and Multilateralism: How China Under Xi Is Strengthening Its Ranks
The Chinese conduct shows it has no interest in multilateralism as it shows scant respect for global institutions.
Vivek Katju
(The Quint) Through its fine words, China may wish to project that it is an emerging country whose interests coincide with other emerging economies and the countries of the Global South. However, such a mask cannot really obscure present international realities and China’s own aggressive approaches. … The fact is that under President Xi Jinping, China has long given up Deng Xiaoping’s advice of remaining low key and focusing on comprehensive development, including in the military and strategic spheres.

25 August
How Russia is fighting for allies among the Brics countries using ‘memory diplomacy’
Jose Caballero, Senior Economist, IMD World Competitiveness Center, International Institute for Management Development (IMD)
(The Conversation) In the 2010s, the expansion of Russia’s influence in Africa was the result of economic “opportunism”, but during the Ukraine war, it has become more strategic. There is evidence that in some African countries the influence of Russia continues to intensify. South Africa, for instance, seems to be moving away from the west and steering towards China’s and Russia’s orbit.
Two interrelated factors can help us understand Russia’s attractiveness to the global south, and reluctance to fully support Ukraine. First, Russia frames itself as an “anti-colonial” agent, particularly in Africa. Such a strategy is based on “memory diplomacy”, aimed at increasing its influence overseas by taking advantage of shared positive memories.
Memory diplomacy, for instance, invokes Russia’s contribution to the victory against fascism during the second world war. In addition, it points out that Russia has never colonised an African country and that it did not participate in the slave trade. On the contrary, the argument goes, Russia, as the centre of the Soviet Union, supported different anti-colonial struggles in the region during the cold war, for example, in Angola and Mozambique.
Another factor in understanding Russia’s appeal to the global south is the “legacy” of Moscow’s solidarity with various countries in the past.
In 1927, the Communist International, an international organisation supportive of world communism that was led by the Soviet Union, sponsored the League Against Imperialism. The league aimed to eliminate colonial rule in the world. It brought together leading anti-colonial activists from around the world and prominent people such as Albert Einstein and Mahatma Gandhi.
Ultimately, the league became an inspiration for many of the leaders of the global south’s decolonisation struggles. In this sense, it has left a long-term legacy in the countries where Moscow’s support had an effect on their anti-colonial struggles.

23-24 August
Brics summit: Is a new bloc emerging to rival US leadership?
(BBC) The announced expansion of the five-nation Brics club of emerging economies was described as “historic” by Chinese President Xi Jinping, but it is still not clear how far the countries’ common interests stretch.
The growth of Brics “will… further strengthen the force for world peace and development” the president said while addressing the leaders gathered at a conference centre in South Africa’s commercial hub, Johannesburg.
The Brics countries – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – are often seen as a counterweight to the Western-led world.
The six new countries – Argentina, Egypt, Iran, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – are set to join in January.
China was the state pushing hardest for group expansion as a way to counter Western dominance.
Steve Tsang, director of London’s Soas China Institute, says though the Brics members do not have much in common on the surface, President Xi was trying to show his fellow bloc members that they all want a similar future: none of them want to live in a Western dominated world.
Iran and Saudi Arabia are among 6 nations set to join China and Russia in the BRICS economic bloc
(AP) — Iran and Saudi Arabia were among six countries invited Thursday to join the BRICS bloc of developing economies in a move that showed signs of strengthening a China-Russia coalition as tensions with the West spiral higher.
The United Arab Emirates, Argentina, Egypt and Ethiopia were also set to enter BRICS from Jan. 1, 2024, joining current members Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa to make an 11-nation bloc.
The announcement came after two days of talks at a summit in Johannesburg involving Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chinese President Xi Jinping and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa. Russian President Vladimir Putin participated in the discussions virtually after his travel to the summit was complicated by an International Criminal Court arrest warrant issued against him over the war in Ukraine.

Brics nations agree to expand developing world bloc
(Times of India) Leaders of the Brics bloc of leading developing countries have agreed mechanisms for considering new members, South Africa said on Wednesday, paving the way for dozens of interested nations to join the group which has pledged to champion the ‘Global South’. Agreement on expansion could help lend global clout to Brics – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – at a time when geopolitical polarisation is spurring efforts by Beijing and Moscow to forge it into a viable counterweight to the West.
Xi, Putin and other leaders locked in discussions over an expansion of the BRICS economic bloc
(AP) — The leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa held closed-door discussions Wednesday on the possible expansion of their BRICS economic bloc, a move they’ve framed as a way to amplify the voice of developing nations, but which also serves the geopolitical interests of Beijing and Moscow.
A decision on whether to accept new members had been expected late Wednesday, the second day of a three-day BRICS summit in Johannesburg. But officials said that was looking unlikely and a declaration might be made on Thursday.

21-22 August
China’s awkward power play at the BRICS summit
Ishaan Tharoor
(WaPo) This week’s annual summit, held in Johannesburg, may be another talk shop, but unlike many of its predecessors, it brims with intrigue and interesting storylines. The war in Ukraine will shadow the proceedings. … Civil-society groups, including South Africa’s branch of Amnesty International, are expected to protest outside the summit venue, calling for an end to the Russian invasion of Ukraine as well as the Kremlin’s crackdown on antiwar dissent at home.
Chinese officials are keen on expanding the bloc to a possibly far more unwieldy acronym, with countries like Indonesia, Nigeria, Argentina and Saudi Arabia all knocking on the door. Leaders from more than 60 countries are expected to be in attendance at the summit.
Will anything come out of the BRICS summit?
(GZEROmedia) Potential BRICS expansion will be the most important issue. Although approximately 40 countries have formally applied for or expressed interest in membership, according to some media reports, BRICS members do not agree on how to move forward — a critical requirement for any final decisions. China is the most vocal proponent of expansion, viewing the BRICS as another prominent organization where it can increase its influence, support the growth of parallel international institutions, and counter the US. Russia is also on record as favoring expansion, as it seeks to promote alternatives to Western structures.
Brazil and South Africa are both concerned about diluting their own influence in the organization, while India’s primary concern remains China’s growing influence. Current messaging suggests that summit discussions will focus on establishing membership criteria, allowing reticent BRICS members to slow the expansion process down without being viewed as roadblocks
While Russia and China have pushed for expansions, believing it will help counter US-dominated institutions, the other three states, US allies, don’t want to undercut relations with Washington. They prefer to cast BRICS as broadly focused on emphasizing Global South interests, and not as a counterweight to US influence. Still, South Africa and Brazil support expansion to some degree: Brazil’s President Lula da Silva says that he backs the addition of the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Argentina, and Indonesia, though it will likely be a long time before the member states reach a consensus on future bloc eligibility.
De-dollarization of the global economy also looms large over the summit. Beijing in particular has accused Washington of “weaponizing” the US dollar after imposing crippling sanctions on Russia, while the other BRICS states are also keen to see the greenback lose some of its dominance and to do more trade in local currencies. (However, the BRICS’s chief financial institution says it has no immediate plans to create its own currency.)

17 August
BRICS nations to meet in South Africa seeking to blunt Western dominance
China, India, Brazil, S.Africa heads to meet, Putin absent
Expansion to include Global South nations high on agenda
Some 40 countries interested in joining
BRICS seek to woo African nations with aid, trade
(Reuters) – BRICS leaders meet in South Africa next week to discuss how to turn a loose club of nations accounting for a quarter of the global economy into a geopolitical force that can challenge the West’s dominance in world affairs.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who faces an international arrest warrant over alleged war crimes in Ukraine, will not join leaders from Brazil, India, China and South Africa amid rifts over whether to expand the bloc to include dozens of “Global South” nations queuing up to join.
Spread over the globe and with economies that operate in vastly different ways, the main thing uniting the BRICS is scepticism about a world order they see as serving the interests of the United States and its rich-country allies who promote international norms they enforce but don’t always respect.

31 July
The BRICS are better off disbanding than expanding
By Hugo Dixon
(Reuters Breakingviews) – The BRICS are an acronym searching for a geopolitical role. When Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa get together for their annual summit in Johannesburg next month, a top issue for discussion will be whether to expand the club. Emerging economies might be better off if it disbands.
It’s more than two decades since Jim O’Neill, a former chief economist at Goldman Sachs, invented the term to combine four large emerging economies with huge potential. (South Africa wasn’t on his list.)
All four countries initially performed well. In the first decade, China’s economy grew by 176%, India’s by 110%, Russia’s by 60%, Brazil’s by 47% and South Africa’s by 41%. They formed a club which held its first summit in 2008. O’Neill likes to tease the BRICS that their economic performance subsequently went downhill – particularly after the much smaller South Africa joined in 2011.
Since then, Russia, Brazil and South Africa have all struggled economically. In the decade to 2022 their total output grew by just 13%, 7% and 12%, respectively. China and India continued to power ahead, albeit at a slower rate. The result is that the group is now seriously lopsided. China’s output of $19 trillion this year will be 50 times South Africa’s.
Undeterred, the BRICS are now talking about adding new letters. The summit’s South African hosts say 22 countries have asked to join – and another 20 are interested. While no official list has been published, countries that have shown interest in the past range from Saudi Arabia, Argentina and Egypt to Iran, Cuba, and Kazakhstan.
But the Global South won’t get much from a club whose leading members are China, which is throwing its weight around in its region, and Russia, a near-pariah state. India and other emerging economies would do better to form their own non-aligned bloc.
Despite their annual gatherings, the BRICS haven’t achieved anything notable together. They created a multilateral lender, the New Development Bank, in 2015. But it has approved only $33 billion of projects in its entire history. The World Bank, by contrast, committed $104 billion in its 2022 fiscal year alone.
The fault line between India and China, which fought a small war in the Himalayas in 2020, is one reason the BRICS club has done so little. India sees the People’s Republic as its most dangerous threat.
Developing nations have other options for joining forces. During the Cold War, India helped create the Non-Aligned Movement, which brought together countries that didn’t want to be part of either the U.S. or Soviet Union sphere of influence. Today’s large non-aligned nations could create a similar group.
They would, of course, first need to agree what they would stand for. Top of the list would be to stress their neutral status.
This is not just a matter of pride. Developing countries can benefit from playing one superpower off against the other. Both the United States and China have shown they are willing to offer so-called swing states inducements – from weapons to infrastructure and help in building green economies – to stop them falling into the other’s camp.
*See Comment of 2 August

24-26 July
BRICS Invites 69 Leaders to August Summit — Western Countries Omitted
The BRICS economic bloc has invited 69 leaders to its upcoming summit, including all African heads of state and the political heads of major Global South bodies. More than 40 countries have expressed interest to join the BRICS group, with 22 nations already having submitted official applications. “We’ve never had such a large outreach,” said South Africa’s diplomat in charge of BRICS relations.
South Africa is hosting this year’s summit, which is scheduled to take place in Johannesburg from Aug. 22 to 24. The BRICS economic bloc comprises Brazil, Russia, China, India, and South Africa.
22 June
BRICS vs. the West
Before the heads of the world’s most “advanced” economies meet this weekend in Germany for the annual G7 summit, the leaders of the top five “emerging” ones — Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, aka BRICS — are holding their own (virtual) summit in Beijing on Thursday.
BRICS became a thing 21 years ago, when a Goldman Sachs economist coined the term — initially with a small “s” — to predict the emerging market economies that would lead global growth in the future (this came true for China, not so much for the rest). Now they’ve established a formal presence, set up their own development bank, and claim to represent the entire Global South.