The US-Led World Order Faces a New Challenge
The BRICS group of emerging nations is accelerating its drive to become a serious economic and political force.
It’s been a long time coming.
Dreamed up in 2001 as an acronym identifying the rapid growth of Brazil, Russia, India and China, it became a formal entity in 2009, with South Africa joining the following year. But it’s consistently failed to punch its weight.
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Now, with Beijing locked in global rivalry with Washington and Moscow subject to international sanctions over its war on Ukraine, the group is weighing efforts to counter the dominance of the US and the European Union.
BRICS nations have already agreed to pool $100 billion of foreign currency, funds they can tap during emergencies, and founded their own bank that’s approved more than $30 billion of loans for water, transportation and other infrastructure projects since 2015.
When the bloc’s foreign ministers meet in Cape Town today, expansion of its membership and moves to establish a shared currency will be on the agenda. A summit of heads of state will be held in Johannesburg in late August.
Existing BRICS members represent more than 42% of the world’s population and account for 23% of global gross domestic product. Some 19 other countries have expressed interest in joining, with Saudi Arabia among those that have formally applied, bolstering the BRICS’ claim to a bigger seat at the global table.
But the plan carries risks.
It threatens to raise hackles in the US and among its allies, which are trying to build a united front against Moscow and hone a collective stance on Beijing.
The very makeup of the group presents another problem. Its current members already straddle a mix of governing systems and ideologies with widely divergent views.
The line of countries seeking to be part of BRICS tells its own story of a fracturing world. Yet any enlargement could complicate the bloc’s ambitions to be a cohesive actor on the global stage.—Michael Cohen and S’thembile Cele