In 2001, Jim O’Neill, a Goldman Sachs economist coined an acronym for the four largest and most promising “emerging market” economies: Brazil, Russia, India, and China. It soon became known as the “BRIC” countries and officially when they met formally for the first time in Russia in 2009. South Africa attended its first summit as a member in 2011 after joining the group in 2010 and the organisation became BRICS. In August 2023, at the 15th BRICS Summit, it was announced that emerging market group countries (Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates) had been invited to join the bloc. Full membership was scheduled to take effect on 1 January 2024. However, the Argentine general election in November 2023 led to a change in president to Javier Milei, who had committed to withdraw the country's membership application, which was confirmed in early 2024. Saudi Arabia, an important ally to the US in the Middle East, has not joined the BRICS at the moment and says the matter is still under consideration.
The BRICS countries are considered the foremost geopolitical rival to the liberal G7 block (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States). The BRICS have launched competing initiatives such as:
1) The New Development Bank, which is supposed to rival the World Bank. The bank's primary focus of lending is infrastructure projects.
2) BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement, which is supposed to compete with the IMF, is a framework for protecting against global liquidity pressures. This includes currency issues where members' national currencies are being adversely affected by global financial pressures.
3) The BRICS pay, which will try to be an alternative to the SWIFT international payment system controlled by the US.
4) The BRICS Joint Statistical Publication, to produce data with a standardised methodology.
Moreover, since 2012, the BRICS has been planning an optical fibre submarine communications cable system to carry telecommunications between the BRICS countries, known as the BRICS Cable to avoid the spying of the U.S. National Security Agency on all telecommunications that flowed in and out of United States territory.
The 2024 BRICS summit was the sixteenth annual BRICS summit, now held in Kazan, Russia, and it was the first with the new members Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates as members. The Summit was also special for Chinese-Indian relations, as Xi Jinping and Narendra Modi met for the first time in five years, when 40 Chinese soldiers and 20 Indian ones were killed in clashes between the two armies in the Himalayas over a border dispute that has lasted since the 60s. The leaders declared they have reached a deal resolving a four-year stand-off, followed by complete disengagement of troops.
The big absences were Brazil's Lula da Silva, as he announced that he would not be attending in person because of a minor brain haemorrhage following a fall. And surprisingly, Aleksandar Vučić, president of Serbia, a country that acts as an observer, could not attend due to a conflicting visit from European Union representatives to Serbia.
In the summit, the BRICS committed again to study the feasibility of a new common currency. As with the Euro for European countries, the advantages would be having a fair (no artificial devaluation of the currency to boost exports) and easier international trade by reducing costs of transactions. However, The move to de-dollarize the world economy makes some Brics members nervous, such as Brazil and India, as they do not want this political group to become pro-Chinese, pro-Russian and anti-western. As an example, Brazil has blocked Venezuela's entry into the BRICS due to Maduro's election fraud, and when speaking by video link because of his physical handicap, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, said: “Many insist on dividing the world into friends and enemies. But the most vulnerable are not interested in simplistic dichotomies; what they want is plenty of food, decent work and quality universally accessible public schools and hospitals”.
The BRICS are now around 45% of the world population, compared with 10% for the G7, and account for 35% of the world economy compared to 30% for the G7. But, in terms of the military and financial strength, the US still has an unquestionable dominance, as the BRICS have many political and border disputes, while NATO is a true alliance, and the dollar is being used for 80% of the world trade and as 60% the world reserve currencies.
In conclusion, the BRICS do pose a threat to US hegemony, but it is a development that is positive and natural for a multipolar world, and doesn't necessarily mean that it will bring powerful nations into a major world war.
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