The most outstanding concrete outcome of the 15th summit of the BRICS grouping in Johannesburg, South Africa was the addition of 6 more members, making the grouping a bloc in world politics and economy as well as in international relations. This is the second time this group has expanded.
The name BRIC – which stands for Brazil, Russia (Russia), India (India) and China (China) – was coined in 2001 by prominent Goldman Sachs economist Jim O’Nell. BRIC is used to refer to an association of markets that they believed would one day outperform Western countries. In 2008, the economic ministers of the four countries mentioned above met for the first time. In 2009 those four countries formed the BRIC grouping. In 2000, the BRIC grouping absorbed South Africa (South Africa) and became BRICS. According to Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da, this year in Johannesburg, the BRICS grouping welcomes Argentina (in Latin America), Egypt and Ethiopia (in Africa), Saudi Arabia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates (in the Middle East and the Gulf). Is. According to Silva, “BRICS+” or “BRICS with 11 members” accounts for 46% of the global population and 37% of world GDP. With the aim of continuing to expand, hasn’t BRICS turned from a group to a bloc?
Another important outcome of the latest summit was that BRICS took the first steps to create a separate monetary and financial regime for the bloc, create a common payments currency and work towards the formation of a single currency. Thus, the goal includes both promotion of intra-regional trade and de-dollarization. Wouldn’t they be members that are subject to trade embargoes and financial and monetary sanctions by the US, the EU and their allies?
From left: Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Chinese President Xi Jinping, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at the BRICS summit on August 23, 2023 Photo: Reuters
The consensus of the five BRICS members on the need for a more just and equal new world order, the need for the countries of the “Southern Bloc” to gather together in terms of steps to build an equal relationship with the “Western Bloc” impresses all. Is. Cooperate but do not depend on the “Western Bloc”. BRICS is expanding to counterbalance the Western grouping of industrialized nations (G7), a collective force in the grouping of the world’s leading developed and emerging economies (G20), and a pole in a multipolar world order.
The criteria set by BRICS for this expansion are geographic location, population and economic potential, not ideological compatibility and value systems as in the G7, nor pure economic strength as in the G20 grouping. The outcome achieved in Johannesburg has fundamentally changed both the form and the nature of BRICS.
But BRICS still has a long way to go to become a real counterweight to the G7 and G20 forum structures. In Johannesburg recently, only some general goals and specific projects have emerged, strategic orientation and long-term vision for BRICS+ activities and development have not been observed, no plans and plans have been laid down. Roadmap to institutionalize the organization also in the form of basic principles, pre-requisite criteria and mandatory conditions for admission of members in future. The major challenge for BRICS after January 1, 2024, when the six countries officially become BRICS members, is to build an internal consensus on ideas and interests to become a unified bloc. The other big test is what the bloc will look like when Russia replaces South Africa as the rotating chair of BRICS.
