What is BRICS and why does it matter? – DW – 07/03/2025 | EUROtoday
Leaders of the world’s fast-growing BRICS economies collect in Rio de Janeiro this weekend, promising to strengthen commerce and expertise alternate throughout the bloc in the shadow of US President Donald Trump’s tariff risk.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will host the three-day talks, attended by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese Premier Li Qiang amongst others.
The Kremlin has stated that Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has an excellent arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged warfare crimes over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, won’t be showing.
DW recaps the historical past of BRICS and the nascent bloc’s plans to tackle the West.
How did BRICS get began?
Goldman Sachs economist Jim O’Neill coined the time period BRIC in 2001 to establish Brazil, Russia, India, and China as fast-growing economies with the potential to develop into international financial powers by 2050.
The time period highlighted their rising gross home product (GDP), giant populations, and rising international affect.
Despite various political ideologies and social constructions, policymakers in Brazil, Russia, India and China then took up the baton, initially holding casual talks between international ministers to put the groundwork for collaboration.
The first BRICS leaders’ summit was held in Russia’s Yekaterinburg in 2009. A 12 months later, South Africa was invited to hitch the rising bloc, and an ‘S’ was added to the BRIC acronym.
The creation of BRICS has since been described as a significant problem to the US-led international political, financial, and monetary methods which have dominated since World War II.
The unique members have advocated for a multipolar world order and a larger voice for fast-developing international locations of the Global South in world affairs.
BRICS has since created an alternative choice to the World Bank, which funds infrastructure and improvement tasks, in addition to a brand new mechanism to offer monetary help throughout financial crises, partially rivaling the function of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
BRICS policymakers have additionally mooted the opportunity of launching their very own forex to problem the US greenback, the world’s reserve forex, however progress has been gradual.
The bloc has been eager to enroll different creating nations, particularly these searching for larger alignment with different fast-growing economies.
How has BRICS developed to the current day?
BRICS now contains 10 international locations — the unique 5, together with Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates and Indonesia, which joined earlier this 12 months.
Although it stays a casual bloc, the Brazilian Center for International Relations (CEBRI) final week labeled BRICS “the first-ever transregional association of non-Western States,” in a preview report for this weekend’s Brazil summit.
Despite having no founding treaty, supporting secretariat or headquarters, BRICS has — on paper — grown into a major geopolitical and financial energy.
The bloc represents greater than 40% of the world’s inhabitants and greater than a 3rd of worldwide financial progress, primarily based on buying energy parity, exceeding that of the G7 group of developed nations.
BRICS international locations additionally management important commodity markets, together with round 40% of worldwide oil manufacturing, due to new members like Iran and the UAE. The bloc additionally controls almost three-quarters of uncommon earth supplies, in accordance with the BRICS web site.
Mutual commerce amongst members has already surpassed $1 trillion (€0.85 trillion), the web site says.
According to CEBRI, BRICS nations utilized for 44 million patents between 2009 and 2023, greater than half of all patents registered globally.
Through its New Development Bank (NDB), BRICS has accepted over $39 billion for 120 tasks, specializing in infrastructure, clear vitality, and sustainable improvement.
The BRICS chair place rotates yearly amongst the completely different members, the place the bloc’s leaders have pushed for reform of worldwide establishments just like the United Nations Security Council, IMF and World Bank.
BRICS nations additionally proceed to diversify from US dollar-denominated commerce — a course of referred to as dedollarization. Intra-BRICS commerce is more and more performed in native currencies and different cost methods to the Western-backed Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT).
Plans for a BRICS forex have hit a stumbling block, nonetheless, on account of resistance from some members, significantly India, over China’s financial dominance.
The plans have been additional stymied when Trump warned BRICS that the bloc would face 100% tariffs on imports to the US if a standard forex was introduced.
Who else desires to hitch BRICS?
BRICS is about for explosive progress, with 44 nations both formally making use of for membership or making exploratory strikes towards becoming a member of, in accordance with the bloc’s web site.
This 12 months alone, Belarus, Bolivia, Cuba, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Uganda and Uzbekistan turned accomplice international locations, a prelude to formal membership, underneath the moniker BRICS+.
Other nations expressing curiosity in becoming a member of embrace: Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Chad, Colombia, the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Honduras, Laos, Kuwait, Morocco, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Pakistan, the Palestinian territories, Senegal, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Syria, Venezuela, and Zimbabwe.
Saudi Arabia, which has robust ties with the United States, was slated to hitch BRICS final 12 months, however has not but made a ultimate determination. The BRICS web site, nonetheless, nonetheless has the Kingdom listed as a member.
Turkey’s plan to hitch was vetoed by India, citing Ankara’s shut ties with foe Pakistan.
Argentina had utilized to hitch, however its software was withdrawn underneath President Javier Milei in December 2023, citing a desire to keep up shut ties with the West.
How is BRICS anticipated to evolve?
BRICS is poised for large enlargement, with some analysts predicting it may additional problem Western-led international establishments, whereas others argue that inside divisions and competing nationwide pursuits might impede its progress.
China and Russia actively place BRICS as a counterweight to Western hegemony, whereas India and Brazil prioritize financial cooperation over geopolitical confrontation, probably creating tensions throughout the bloc.
As properly as China and India’s border dispute, rivalries between Saudi Arabia — if it joins — and Iran, or Egypt and Ethiopia over the Nile River dam, may hinder consensus on political points and dilute the bloc’s capacity to advance its pursuits.
The US forex’s entrenched function in international commerce and Beijing’s curbs on the Chinese yuan’s use in worldwide commerce may hamper the push for dedollarization, which some see extra as an try by Beijing and Moscow to bypass Western sanctions than a sensible technique for a brand new reserve forex.
The US and European Union imposed punitive measures on Russia following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and Iran’s financial system is equally harm by sanctions over Tehran’s nuclear program.
Other international locations are supportive of plans for an alternate monetary system to hedge their bets in case they face related sanctions sooner or later, say analysts.
Economic disparities amongst members pose one other problem for BRICS because the bloc grows. China’s GDP far exceeds that of South Africa or newer members like Ethiopia and dangers skewing priorities towards Beijing’s pursuits.
There are additionally rising issues about how democracies like India and Brazil can align with autocracies like China, Iran and Russia.
O’Neill, who coined the time period BRIC, now thinks the grouping is a failed mission, writing in November that BRICS “serves no real purpose beyond generating symbolic gestures and lofty rhetoric.”
Edited by: Uwe Hesser
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