The membership of BRICS, an intergovernmental organisation comprising of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, has doubled in 2024. During Moscow's presidency, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have joined this special international forum of the Global South as full members. BRICS made a decision in this regard during its Annual Summit held in Johannesburg in August 2023. Although the bloc invited Argentina to join the forum, the Latin American country's new President Javier Gerardo Milei decided to withdraw from the group.
Russian President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin is particularly excited about the recent development. Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa have claimed that many countries are interested in joining this bloc because of various principles of the alliance, like the equality, consensus, and a fair global financial and trade system. President Putin has announced that the Russian Presidency shall focus not only on enhancing foreign policy coordination among member countries, but also on joint efforts to find appropriate solutions to any international and regional security-related issues. It may be noted that South Africa joined this bloc in 2010, a year after Brazil, Russia, India and China built the platform.
It seems that British Economist Terence James 'Jim' O'Neill did not imagine that the bloc would emerge as the world's largest and most promising economies, as well as the ambitious alliance of nations, one day when he coined the term BRIC (the acronym that stands for Brazil, Russia, India and China) a couple of decades ago. Currently, BRICS accounts for about 40% of the global population and a quarter of the global GDP. Now, the inclusion of the world's three largest oil producing nations - Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Iran - shall increase the importance of BRICS on the global stage.
Also, no one can ignore the role of this bloc in expanding the influence of the Global South in global geopolitics. In addition, BRICS is eager to strengthen its New Development Bank (NDB) as an alternative to the World Bank (WB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF). At the same time, BRICS has decided to reduce the dominance and importance of the US Dollar in international trade transactions and to develop an alternative mechanism with the help of regional currencies.
Meanwhile, there are also some problems. It will not be so easy to counter the dominance of the US Dollar in the global market. The problems of new member-states of BRICS are complex and varied. As Iran and Saudi Arabia are regional rivals, it will be a bit problematic for BRICS to maintain the balance. It is an open secret that Russia and China are interested in developing the BRICS as a rival to the G7, including the US, as the driving force of the global economy.
Therefore, India has to be careful that no country's own interests shall be given priority while including new members in the coming days. All the members of BRICS, including India, have strategic ties with the West, and no one would seek a deterioration of those ties for the sake of their own interest. Therefore, balance is the key to BRICS' effectivity.
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