What are the BRICS?
The BRICS organisation consists of five emerging economies: Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. A summit is held every year to coordinate economic policy. Initially, South Africa was established as a member of the BRICs in 2009 and received an invitation to participate in 2010. In 2011, it attended the summit for the first time. With a total population of over 3.2 billion in 2022, more than four times that of the seven G7 countries (approximately 773 million inhabitants), the BRICS group forms a huge economic market.
In recent decades, their place in the world economy has continued to increase at the expense of the G7. As a result, the BRICS’ share of total gross domestic product (GDP) in purchasing power parity (PPP) terms exceeded that of the G7 (31.02% versus 30.95%), and this trend does not seem to be changing.
Economic opportunities
Trade between China and the other countries in the group, which was established in 2009, recorded an increase of 12.1% in 2022 alone compared to 2021. It was reported at the inaugural session that trade volume is increasing due to complementary cooperation in various fields such as health, environment, science and technology, agriculture, education, and micro, small, and medium enterprises.
Economic trade or a new world order?
The camp will expand further as China, which currently holds the presidency, works on a platform involving emerging economies and major developing countries as an alternative to the US-led Western bloc and in the spirit of trade and economic cooperation. Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia, Argentina, Iran, Egypt, Indonesia, Nigeria, Senegal, the United Arab Emirates, Algeria, and Thailand are among the countries invited to the Summit as possible new members and participated in the Brics Plus meeting.
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Argentina will make the biggest entry. Then the Brics will become Bricsa. Buenos Aires has the option to join the New Brics Development Bank (NDB), which does not require membership in the Alliance to lend. Countries such as Uruguay, the United Arab Emirates, and Bangladesh have already used this option. The National Development Bank (NDB) was founded in 2014 and is based in Beijing.
Since that time, it has already approved over 80 infrastructure construction projects worldwide. It involves financing that does not make Beijing dependent on a change of policy, as is common with US-led international organisations. This makes participation in the alliance attractive to a wide range of countries.
It is becoming increasingly clear that the BRICS Assembly will grow into an enormous counterweight that could outstrip the G7 on the international stage if the current trend continues.
