The five-nation BRICS group made an announcement regarding a membership expansion during the group's 15th summit in Sandton, Johannesburg, as the bloc has purportedly invited Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates to become new BRICS members at the start of 2024.
“Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates are joining the BRICS group of nations after their candidacies were approved on Thursday by leaders of the current member states, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced.
The six newcomers will become full-fledged members starting January of 2024. The club currently consists of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. BRICS expansion topped the agenda of the summit in Johannesburg this week.
BRICS previously expanded only once in 2010, when South Africa joined the organization. The admission was made without any prerequisites. One of the key goals of this year’s summit was to agree to more formal criteria for new candidates.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose nation will take the rotating BRICS presidency next year, thanked the host of the summit for his contribution to the outcome.
‘President Ramaphosa has shown amazing diplomatic skill in reconciling all positions… regarding the expansion of BRICS’, he said.
The group touts itself as an alternative to Western-dominated international institutions, saying that its approach better reflects the emerging multipolar world. Member states have blamed the U.S. and its allies for abusing their position during the moment of unipolarity, which they enjoyed following the collapse of the Soviet Union. As Western influence dwindled, its leaders leveraged tools under their control, such as the dollar, to protect its hegemonic position, BRICS members claim.
Participants of the summit expressed confidence that the organization’s influence will continue to grow. BRICS seeks to maintain a balanced approach to its admittance policy so that all parts of the world are represented and have an influence on its agenda”. -RT
When taking into consideration that the now 11-nation bloc is set to expand by approximately 383 million people and that BRICS’ Gross Domestic Product is projected to hike up to 37% of the world’s GDP in terms of purchasing power, the “BRICS Plus” framework, proposed by China in 2017, has made significant strides in strengthening the belief of many countries throughout the world in a viable multipolar world order that has the ability to topple the current unitary, Western-dominated international institutions.
By this time, the strategic importance of the BRICS organization can no longer be understated, as the group of rising world economies has already successfully positioned itself as a direct geopolitical rival to the Group of Seven and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.