Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa have joined forces in the Brics Alliance to counterbalance the West. Now the group will grow.
The Brics group of important emerging markets is expanded by six countries. Saudi Arabia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Argentina, Egypt and Ethiopia will join on January 1, 2024, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced at the alliance’s summit in Johannesburg on Thursday. South Africa currently chairs the confederation, which also includes Brazil, Russia, India and China.
The expansion of the group was the focus of the three-day summit meeting, which ends on Thursday. With the addition of the new members, the group evolves into “Brics plus”.
Brics wants to be a counterweight to the West
The aim of the alliance is to form a counterweight to the geopolitical and economic dominance of the West. The Brics countries also want to reduce their dependence on the US dollar as the global reserve currency. According to their own statements, they make up 42 percent of the world’s population, 30 percent of the global land area and 24 percent of global economic output.
Numerous other members are to be admitted. According to South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor, around 40 countries have expressed a more or less binding interest in Brics membership, 23 of them concretely. This circle includes Algeria, Kuwait, Bangladesh, Venezuela and Thailand. The accession criteria for this have not yet been publicly announced.
China’s President Xi Jinping, Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Ramaphosa are in Johannesburg. Russian President Vladimir Putin is connected via video. Had he arrived, he would have feared being arrested for alleged war crimes during the Russian invasion of Ukraine under the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant in The Hague.
Source: Stern
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