Bloc Politics

Since its inception, the BRICS, a group of five emerging national economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, has emerged as a multilateral platform, fostering cooperation based on a new paradigm away from the US-led liberal world order. This was evident as the BRICS states repeatedly refused to condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine. With their increasingly assertive and risk-fearing posture, China and Russia are stridently leading the organization as a counterweight to the Western institutions.

The BRICS’ stance on international issues, including the Iran nuclear deal, instability in Afghanistan, and the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, shows that the organization is pursuing an increasing role in international politics. The member nations seek to modify their roles in the contemporary global order. In an era of intensifying bloc politics, geo-strategic and geo-economic flux, and the heightened competition and tensions between the US and China on the one hand and Russia and the West on the other, the last two BRICS summits have provided China an opportunity to promote its vision of the international order. This has also enabled China to use BRICS as a diplomatic platform during the revival of NATO and increased US activities in Asia-Pacific.

The strong commitment of BRICS members to a comprehensive reform of the United Nations demonstrates the concerns regarding the governance structures of the UN, which are viewed as representing the interests of the Western powers and the concerns of the wider world, particularly the Global South, are grossly ignored. In short, a coalition of five dissimilar countries has come a long way and has steered this partnership successfully, demonstrating modest yet positive results, and has succeeded in laying down a future framework to achieve global development goals.

The last BRICS Summit achieved an across-the-board consensus on several issues, but particularly two major agenda points stand out: a) positive movement of member states towards the use of national currencies in trade and financial transactions among group members and with other nations of the ‘Global South’; and b) agreement on the expansion of the group into a broader platform by inviting new member states into BRICS. The BRICS invited six more countries to join, taking the total number of its members from five to eleven: Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran (IRI), Saudi Arabia (KSA), and the UAE. Membership of these six countries will take effect on January 01, 2024. The BRICS expansion process establishes the growing interests of other countries in building partnerships with BRICS, including Pakistan, which formally applied for BRICS membership in November 2023.

After the inclusion of new members, BRICS no longer remains BRICS and has transformed into BRICS Plus. This expansion brings with it both opportunities and challenges for the group. On the one hand, the inclusion of new members will add to its geo-political, geo-strategic, geo-economic clout, and material strength. On the other hand, challenges will surface in the group, with additional voices from other regions bringing their unique perceptions to the table. This will pose problems, especially for the consensus-based decision-making within BRICS, due to diverging interests of different members. China, which has a mixed economy, Russia with an unprecedentedly Western-sanctioned economy, combined with India’s increasing bonhomie with the West and the United States in particular and its enhanced desire to continue trading in the US dollar are some of the reasons why the idea of a common BRICS currency is unable to gain any meaningful traction so far.

Undoubtedly, BRICS is a highly vibrant and interesting group with different factors influencing its decision-making. Geopolitical interests, of course, remain the most influential factor of all. However, economic cooperation is one of the main driving forces and uniting elements behind the BRICS. Trade among themselves is impressive; they encourage investment among member states and desire to lower trade barriers to improve economic integration. Similarly, on the political front, BRICS members hold annual summits to discuss various political issues, including regional disputes, international security, and global governance.