A momentous global shift is currently underway. One which finds _expression_ today in the Russian city of Kazan where the Brics bloc is holding an international summit hosted by the supposed global pariah Vladimir Putin.
Since the onset of the conflict in Ukraine, the West has sought to isolate Russia through sanctions and diplomatic pressure. And yet Kazan will be welcoming heads of state or high-ranking officials from 32 countries, including the bloc’s four new entrants — Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates — as well as numerous other countries interested in membership, including Turkey, the first ever Nato country to consider joining. The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will also be present.
The event testifies to the growing influence of the Global South — or the Global Majority, as the Russians call it — and its search for an alternative to the US-led system. Some 40 nations are reportedly on the waiting list to join, with Saudi Arabia and Indonesia expressing serious interest, further illustrating the growing attractiveness of this “non-Western club”. Membership is seductive to those nations seeking alternatives to Western-dominated economic and financial structures which are often accused of jeopardising the economic development, social stability and national sovereignty of weaker countries.
It’s particularly telling of the West’s tone-deaf approach to the rest of the world that, to the former’s surprise, so many countries expressed an interest in joining the Brics after the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war. Ironically, the West’s sanctions regime — and especially the freezing of $300 billion of Russia’s foreign-exchange reserves, an unprecedent act of economic warfare — is what motivated many countries to look for alternatives to the dollar-denominated Western financial infrastructure.
The expansion of the Brics, coupled with the growing interest from the Global South, underscores the geopolitical power shift underway — from the West to Rest. Indeed, the Brics bloc already wields considerable economic clout. The group’s combined GDP, when adjusted for purchasing power parity (PPP), accounts for 35.6% of the global economy, surpassing the G7’s share of just over 30%. In terms of population, the disparity is even more striking: Brics nations are home to 45% of the world’s population, while the G7 accounts for less than 10%. With India, China, and Russia’s GDP expected to grow by approximately 4% this year, compared with 2% for Western economies, and with more countries set to join, the Brics have the wind of history in their sails. No wonder this summit is being described as a “Bretton Woods for the Global South”.
Nonetheless, Western countries have often dismissed the institutional relevance of the Brics, pointing out that the bloc is little more than a loose association of countries with often diverging economic and geopolitical interests. Furthermore, it has failed to offer a concrete alternative to the Western systems. While it is true that the Brics have privileged economic and infrastructural mutual cooperation, and the wider concept of “connectivity”, over formalised governance structure, this might be about to change.