BRICS: Will it expand its membership base?

August 22, 2023

(4 minutes read)

Leaders from the BRICS economic bloc of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa will hold three days of meetings in Johannesburg, the capital city of South Africa. Chinese Premier Xi Jinping will be participating in the meeting. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will also be attending the summit along with heads of state of South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The Russian President assured that he would tune into the summit virtually, not on and off; but from the start to the end of the heads of state meeting. That is the type of importance he has assigned to the summit.

As speculations galore on the possible takeaways of the summit, it is becoming increasingly clear that the BRICS stalwarts may take a decision to expand the membership of the bloc by bringing more developing countries, categorized as emerging economies into the fold. There are already 20 aspirants waiting in the wings to join the grouping. Foremost among them is Saudi Arabia. The second largest oil producer in the world, Saudi Arabia’s entry would lend more gravitas to the organization, which took shape only in 2009, with a membership of four countries-India, Russia, China, and Brazil. One year later, South Africa was inducted.

A more broad-based BRICS would be a platform for the developing world to come together, as opposed to the G-7 countries, which are a grouping of rich countries. The expanded BRICS would work as a parallel organization to the G-7. Going by the present trend, two countries-China, and Russia- would call the shot in the grouping. It is to be seen how India and Brazil would react to the proposition of expanding the base since there are some apprehensions expressed that it would lead to their diminished presence in the grouping. Also, the US and EU have come out with statements couched in diplomatic parlance that they are engaging with already existing members of the group and aspiring members, although they did not spell out the type of engagements or tenor of the negotiations. It is a foregone conclusion that the US and the rest of the G-7 may not like to see a parallel organization emerging. Induction of countries like Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Argentina, Algeria, Indonesia, United Arab Emirates etc can tilt the geopolitical balance.

The main summit to be kicked off on Wednesday – and sideline meetings Tuesday and Thursday – are expected to produce general calls for more cooperation among countries in the Global South amid their rising discontent over perceived Western dominance of global institutions. There are reports that Russia and China would look to gain more political and economic ground in the developing world at a summit. Leaders or representatives of dozens more developing countries are set to attend the sideline meetings.