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Brics
Opinion
Anthony Rowley
Anthony Rowley

Macroscope | Brics challenge to the established economic order is no joke

  • Not only are more countries keen to join the bloc, its push for reform of the global economic and financial system is gathering pace, and the economic heft of the economies involved means they cannot be dismissed lightly

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(From left to right) Celso Luiz Nunes Amorim, chief adviser of the presidency of Brazil, Wang Yi, China’s top diplomat and foreign minister, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, minister in the presidency of South Africa, Ajit Doval, Indian national security adviser, and Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of the Security Council of Russia, at the 13th meeting of BRICS national security advisers and high representatives on national security in Johannesburg, South Africa, on July 25. Photo: Xinhua
Anthony Rowley
The Brics nations – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – are busy building a bigger house just now, with the size of their family looking set to grow, perhaps quite dramatically. But it is not so much size that matters as the diverse areas into which Brics members are projecting their influence.
Some see the bloc building greater influence in reform of the international economic and financial system and in securing a bigger voice and vote for developing nations at the International Monetary Fund. It has already launched the New Development Bank (NDB) and members are promoting new currency and reserve arrangements.

More than 40 countries have either formally applied or expressed interest in joining Brics, according to South Africa’s top diplomat in charge of relations with the bloc. These include Saudi Arabia, Iran, Argentina, the United Arab Emirates and Indonesia.

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Brics appeared economically too diverse and geographically scattered to be effective when it was born as the Bric group, without South Africa, in 2009. Yet this very diversity seems to have guided it towards a more global perspective than that demonstrated by other regional groupings.

Such facts are being largely overlooked by commentators in the run-up to the 15th annual Brics summit to be held in Johannesburg, South Africa, later this month. They are more concerned with Russian President Vladimir Putin decision not to attend the Brics summit in person.
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Yet, it is unlikely to be Putin’s actions, including the war in Ukraine, that take centre stage at the summit, but rather how the nations interested in joining Brics view actions there by Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. One reason so many emerging economies are considering Brics membership now is that they are weary of being cajoled or coerced into taking sides in the divide between the US and China, and in the Russia-Ukraine confrontation.
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