BRICS Summit The BRICS expand "the family" as requested by Xi Jinping

The BRICS “family,” as Chinese President Xi Jinping has called it, is getting bigger. The block of five emerging countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), which together represent a quarter of the world economy and bring together 42% of the world population, opens its doors to another six new members: Argentina, Egypt , Iran, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. As of January 1, 2024, these countries will fatten a group that every day takes more shape as a possible counterbalancing force to the world order dominated by the West.

This first expansion of the BRICS since South Africa joined in 2010 undoubtedly means a victory for China, which had long pushed to expand the bloc, something initially opposed by India and Brazil, which have ended up succumbing. “India fully supports the expansion of the BRICS group,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi finally said.

In a speech on the last day of the BRICS summit in Johannesburg, South Africa this week, Xi Jinping said emerging countries are becoming more and more relevant in the international arena and the summit would greatly contribute to the configuration of a new global economic and political order.

“Development is an inalienable right of all countries, not a privilege of a few. BRICS countries should be equals on the path of development and revitalization, oppose acts of decoupling and disruption of industrial and supply chains, as well as economic coercion,” Xi said, taking a clear dart at his rival in Washington, which is in the midst of a crusade of technological sanctions against Beijing.

The new BRICS that will appear next year – it is unknown if they will seek a new name – includes oil heavyweights such as Iran and Saudi Arabia. They are the first members of the Middle East and have entered the sphere of influence of Beijing after the mediation of the second world power managed to get Riyadh and Tehran to re-establish relations.

For its part, Ethiopia is one of the fastest growing economies in Africa, while the United Arab Emirates and Egypt maintain a very close relationship, especially with India. The case of Argentina, in full economic and social instability, is understood by the insistence of Brazil. “I dedicate a special message to dear Alberto Fernández, president of Argentina and great friend of Brazil and the developing world,” Brazilian President Lula da Silva wrote on Twitter. “The new members will increase the BRICS’ share of global gross domestic product from 32% to 37% on a purchasing power parity basis,” he added.

Argentina is struggling with record inflation, a lack of foreign reserves and debt payments that are strangling it as part of a $44 billion loan deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Lula criticized those IMF loans, calling them “suffocating” and hinted at the possibility that the BRICS bank, led by former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, would increase lending to other countries with “different criteria” to stimulate their economies.

“I want to assure all my colleagues that we will continue what we started: expanding the influence of the BRICS in the world,” Russian Vladimir Putin, the only BRICS leader who did not he was present in South Africa because the host country is a signatory to the International Criminal Court and would have to detain him if he entered the country under a warrant for the attack on Kiev.

In his speech, Putin criticized “current neocolonialism” and countries that “promote their own hegemony.” He also said that Russia is open to dialogue to find a solution to “the situation in Ukraine”, a country that his troops invaded in February 2022. The Brazilian Lula also pointed out that the BRICS are willing to “join efforts to seek a ceasefire immediately in Ukraine”.