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The BRICS group of countries have invited Saudi Arabia, Iran, Ethiopia, Egypt, Argentina and the United Arab Emirates to join the club, which China wants to operate as a rival to the G7.
BRICS currently comprises China, India, Russia, Brazil and South Africa; the latter hosted this year’s summit in Johannesburg meaning the proposed expansion would more than double the number of member states.
President of China Xi Jinping speaks at the China-Africa Leaders’ Roundtable Dialogue on the last day of the BRICS Summit, in Johannesburg, South Africa.Credit: AP
The BRICS leaders said in their declaration at the end of the summit that the countries would be admitted from January 1, 2024.
The group wants to reduce its reliance on using the American dollar to settle global trade but has so far been incapable of producing a viable alternative.
China’s President Xi Jinping, who has played a greater role in the Middle East including helping broker a deal between Tehran and Riyadh, hailed it as historic.
“It shows the determination of BRICS countries for unity and cooperation with the broader developing countries,” Xi said.
President of China Xi Jinping, right, and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa attend the China-Africa Leaders’ Roundtable Dialogue on the last day of the BRICS Summit, in Johannesburg.Credit: AP
China had been pushing for the BRICS to grow while India had expressed reluctance.
However, Prime Minister Narendra Modi backed the outcome.
“Adding new members will further strengthen BRICS and give it a new impetus,” he said.
South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa said more countries could be included in the future.
“BRICS has embarked on a new chapter in its effort to build a world that is fair, a world that is just, a world that is also inclusive and prosperous,” Ramaphosa said.
“We have consensus on the first phase of this expansion process and other phases will follow.”
Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi celebrated his country’s invitation to join BRICS with a swipe at Washington.
Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers his remarks during the 2023 BRICS Summit at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg Thursday.Credit: AP
“The expansion of BRICS shows that the unilateral approach is on the way to decay,” Iran’s Arabic-language television network Al Alam quoted him as saying.
But Argentina’s centre-right presidential candidate Patricia Bullrich opposed her country joining while Russia’s invasion of Ukraine remained ongoing.
“We believe in an international order based in rules to preserve peace,” she said.
BRICS has only ever expanded once before, when it admitted South Africa, a year after its founding in 2009.
But there has been a rush of emerging countries applying to join, amid dissatisfaction that the current world order disproportionately favours the West.
With two OPEC members among the new entrants, they would add financial heft and introduce the Islamic world to BRICS.
“I think this summit has given BRICS a shot in the arm and also a dose of vindication,” Michael Kugelman from the Woodrow Wilson Centre’s South Asia Institute said in an online briefing for selected journalists.
“BRICS has managed to counter two core criticisms of the group, one is that it struggles to agree and the other that it is increasingly irrelevant.”
He said Washington would be watching with more concern but that with 11 members compared to five, this would pose challenges for BRICS which operates on consensus.
Russia’s Vladimir Putin, whom the International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant over the kidnapping of Ukrainian children, attended virtually.
Putin said via video link: “The countries of the so-called Golden Billion have gone to great lengths to preserve the unipolar world as it used to be.”
”It suits them, and they are the ones who benefit from it.
“They are trying to substitute international law with their own rules-based order, as they call it, but no one has seen these rules.”
Russia will host BRICS next year in Kazan. Kugleman said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine should serve as a deterrent to new entrants it would not.
“Over the half by GDP has denounced Russia’s actions but over half by population have not,” he said.
“It’s an ongoing struggle for the United States and Ukraine and its allies to make people understand how aggressive, and frankly evil this war in Ukraine launched by Russia is.
“That’s on us to do but it’s also on the rest of the world to be receptive to understanding the reality of that war and the consequences of that worldwide, on food, on security, on energy security and on inflation.”
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