BRICS EXPANSION
CONTEXT:
- Recently, BRICS leaders announced the admission of six new countries, thus elevating the strength of the five-nation economic grouping to 11.
MORE ABOUT THE NEWS:
- During a recent summit, the BRICS nations forged a broad consensus to extend invitations to six countries – Argentina, Egypt, Iran, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.
- This move aims to bolster the influence of a coalition that is advocating for the interests of the “Global South.”
- The move which can strengthen its claim of being a ‘voice of the Global South’ on one hand, while raising concerns about China’s increasing dominance on the other.
NEW ANTI-WEST BRICS :
- As the rush towards BRICS is driven by two basic impulses:
- “First, there is considerable anti-US sentiment in the world, and all these countries are looking for a grouping where they can use that sentiment to gather together.
- Second, there is a lot of appetite for multipolarity, for a platform where countries of the Global South can express their solidarity.”
- Now BRICS consists of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. In its ongoing summit at Johannesburg, South Africa, it has invited Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Argentina, Egypt, and Ethiopia.
- Their membership will begin in January.
- BRICS decisions are unanimous, that is, all members have to agree for any move to go ahead.
- The invitation to Iran, whose ties with the West are strained, seems to have a strong China-Russia imprint.
- While Saudi Arabia has traditionally been a US ally, it has been increasingly striking out on its own, and the BRICS membership is in line with that.
- Both Egypt and Ethiopia have had longstanding ties with the US too.
- Argentina, facing a trying economic crisis, will hope for financial aid from BRICS.
ABOUT BRICS:
- The leaders of BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) nations convened for the first time in St. Petersburg, Russia during the G8 Outreach Summit in July 2006.
- The BRIC group’s nomenclature transitioned to BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) upon South Africa’s full membership acceptance at the BRIC Foreign Ministers’ meeting in New York in September 2010.
- BRICS stands as an important consortium, involving prominent emerging economies from around the globe, collectively representing 41% of the world’s population, accounting for 24% of the global GDP, and commanding over 16% of the world’s trade, according to World Bank data from 2019.
SYLLABUS: PRELIMS, CURRENT AFFAIRS
SOURCE: INDIAN EXPRESS
