*Scroll to the bottom for a "simplified" summary.
The BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) bloc met for its annual leader’s summit in Johannesburg, South Africa on August 22–24, 2023. The highlight of the 15th summit was the agreement to admit six new member countries: Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, who will officially join the group in January 2024.
Ten Council of Councils (CoC) experts from BRICS members and beyond reflect on the future of the grouping and what expansion means for global governance.
The expansion of the BRICS to a BRICS+ format and the adoption of guiding principles, standards, and procedures for the same, have potentially made the BRICS a more attractive institution for consensus-building and dialogue in the developing world. Even the profile of the new members suggest that the system is headed for something beyond traditionally “acceptable” partners in the eyes of the West. The presence of Iran especially and the reactions to it in the coming days will be interesting to follow.
Another important aspect will be how these partners tap into the new systems of cooperation that the BRICS has been attempting to set up. Hype about a common BRICS currency might be impractical and premature, but trading in national currencies is becoming a reality. The recent rupee-designated oil transaction between India and the United Arab Emirates is not merely a swipe at the petrodollar arrangement that has prevailed since 1973. It is also a signal that the world’s major commodity exporters and importers can try to reduce their dependence on the dollar. If not a new world order, the BRICS expansion is certainly an attempt at an alternative world order, one with a more sympathetic ear for the developing many versus the developed few.
The fifteenth BRICS summit will be remembered in two ways: as a summit that decided on the transformation from the BRICS to the BRICS+ and as a summit of complaints against the West for its responsibility for crises and wars and its inability to even control the consequences of these events. What some observers call a negative coalition of states that cannot agree on a common position, but can create a consensus on what they oppose, is growing in number to avoid sanctions and protectionist measures. The old scripts of belonging to a certain order are no longer valid because the reliability of traditional partners has changed. Meaningful narratives about old forms of order that have become fragile are losing their binding effect. New horizons of possibility are seized in anticipation of new options for action, pointing clearly to the urgent need to reorder international relations to overcome the self-referentiality of the West.
The refusal to be drawn into a contest of competing global powers is a general perception in the Global South that should not be underestimated. Western countries need to understand that the BRICS+ will continue as a loose grouping heterogeneous in its membership but with high aspirational dimensions seeking to expand its practical capabilities for other countries around the globe, especially a wider projection of the New Development Bank. The accusation that the West is arrogant toward the needs of the Global South is serious. It cannot be answered by offering “value-based partnerships” and a “rules-based” multilateralism when the interest of the BRICS is focused on changing those rules in global finance, trade, and other standard-setting procedures.
Although the BRICS+ has not elaborated on a model of global governance, and the democracy and human rights records of several of the new invited members are more than poor, the G7 needs to be aware that the formation of BRICS+ is more than a mere political maneuver to advance China’s vision of international order. All the BRICS+ members and the future group of partner countries have their own agendas and the BRICS forum is one of the various platforms on which member countries try to promote their vision of the word, especially for their participation with better conditions in the global economy.
A critical moment in the creation of a new world order may have just occurred. After horse trading and arm twisting, the BRICS is now the BRICS-plus-six. The new members will add their voices to advocating for a more equitable global governance system, reforming the UN Security Council, and increasing influence for the Global South.
The expansion signifies a growing alignment of geopolitical and economic agendas within the BRICS. It incorporates major global oil producers near crucial trade chokepoints, such as the Suez Canal and the Strait of Hormuz and Bab-al Mandab Strait. India, Iran, and Russia are already developing the International North-South Transport Corridor. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, two of the world’s largest oil and gas exporters, supply most of China’s energy imports. Brazil, the last BRICS member to approve the expansion, specifically requested Argentina’s inclusion, which was reportedly a precondition for Brazil agreeing to the expansion as a whole. As the host, South Africa successfully negotiated the inclusion of two African countries, strengthening its ongoing efforts to promote integration, development, and growth through the African Continental Free Trade Area.
When the world is experiencing an acute geopolitical conflict, any event is viewed exclusively through its prism—the United States versus Russia and China, the West versus the Rest, democracy versus autocracy, and so on. Accordingly, the conflict will always see a winner and a loser.
In fact, the outcome of the Johannesburg summit should be considered not from the point of view of rivalry but in the context of objective international trends. The supporters of turning the BRICS into an anti-Western association could not prevail. Apart from Russia, the members are not interested in direct conflict with the West.
As a result, the direction has been determined. The BRICS will move toward the alter-West rather than the anti-West. The grouping will expand the space of interaction bypassing the Western world and without the participation of Western countries.
Current and future BRICS members have one thing in common: they reject the right of the United States and the European Union to impose restrictions on other countries’ foreign policy and economic activities. The BRICS space can be developed as a tool for diversifying the world and moving away from Western domination toward a far more multifaceted scenario. It will be further enhanced and strengthened in the process, albeit a long process.
In simplified terms:
The BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) have added Saudi Arabia, Iran, Ethiopia, Egypt, Argentina and United Arab Emirates to their union. This expansion is historic.
They share a common desire to level the economic playing field that they feel is reliant on the U.S. dollar.
Some of the bilateral trading agreements (United Arab Emirates and India) will allow countries to trade oil and other assets in their local currencies- NOT in the U.S. dollar.
More than 40 countries have expressed interest in joining the union.
They are hoping to create a global government that rivals the power of the United States.
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