BRICS

This article is about the intergovernmental organization. For the term championed by Goldman Sachs, see BRIC. For other uses, see BRICS (disambiguation).

BRICS

BRICS logo during the 2024 Russian chairmanship
Map key:   Member states   Prospective member states
Named after	Founder member states' initials (in English) BRIC (economic term)
Formation	September 2006 (2006-09) (Informal) 16 June 2009 (2009-06-16) (Official)
Founded at	Yekaterinburg, Russia (1st BRIC summit)
Type	Intergovernmental organization
Purpose	Political and economical
Fields	International politics
Membership	Brazil Russia India China South Africa Iran Egypt Ethiopia United Arab Emirates
Official languages	English, Arabic, Amharic, Chinese, Russian, Hindi, Persian, Portuguese
Formerly called	BRIC

BRICS is an intergovernmental organization comprising nine countries – Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, and the United Arab Emirates. BRICS was originally identified to highlight investment opportunities. The grouping evolved into a geopolitical and geoeconomic bloc, with their governments meeting annually at formal summits and coordinating multilateral policies since 2009. Relations among BRICS are conducted mainly based on non-interference, equality, and mutual benefit.

The founding countries of Brazil, Russia, India, and China held the first leaders summit in Russia in 2009 under the name BRIC. Following a renaming of the organization, South Africa attended its first summit as a member in 2011 after joining the group in 2010. Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, and the United Arab Emirates attended their first summit as member states at the 2024 summit in Russia. The acronym BRICS+ has been informally used reflecting new membership.

BRICS institutions are considered an alternative to institutions such as those led by nations of the G7 bloc comprising some of the leading economies. Together BRICS has implemented competing initiatives such as the New Development Bank, the BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement, BRICS pay, the BRICS Joint Statistical Publication and the BRICS basket reserve currency. BRICS has received both praise and criticism from numerous commentators.

History

Founding

BRICS Tower headquarters in Shanghai

The term BRIC was originally developed in the context of foreign investment strategies. It was introduced in the 2001 publication, Building Better Global Economic BRICs by Jim O'Neill, then head of global economics research at Goldman Sachs and later Chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management.

The foreign ministers of the initial four BRIC General states (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) met in New York City in September 2006 at the margins of the General Debate of the UN Assembly, beginning a series of high-level meetings. A full-scale diplomatic meeting was held in Yekaterinburg, Russia, on 16 June 2009.

The BRIC grouping's 1st formal summit, also held in Yekaterinburg, commenced on 16 June 2009, with Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Dmitry Medvedev, Manmohan Singh, and Hu Jintao, the respective leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, and China, all attending. The summit's focus was on improving the global economic situation and reforming financial institutions, and discussed how the four countries could better co-operate in the future. There was further discussion of ways that developing countries, such as 3/4 of the BRIC members, could become more involved in global affairs.

In the aftermath of the 2009 Yekaterinburg summit, the BRIC nations announced the need for a new global reserve currency, which would have to be "diverse, stable and predictable." Although the statement that was released did not directly criticize the perceived "dominance" of the US dollar – something that Russia had criticized in the past – it did spark a fall in the value of the dollar against other major currencies.

2010 expansion

In 2010, South Africa began efforts to join the BRIC grouping, and the process for its formal admission began in August of that year. South Africa officially became a member nation on 24 December 2010, after being formally invited by China to join and was subsequently accepted by other BRIC countries. The group was renamed BRICS –with the "S" standing for South Africa– to reflect the group's expanded membership. In April 2011, the President of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, attended the 2011 BRICS summit in Sanya, China as a full member.

New Development Bank

New Development Bank's logo

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and other BRICS representatives during the 15th BRICS Summit in Johannesburg, 23 August 2023

In June 2012, the BRICS nations pledged $75 billion to boost the lending power of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). However, the proposed loan was conditional on IMF voting reforms. In March 2013, during the fifth BRICS summit in Durban, the member countries agreed to create a global financial institution to cooperate with the western-dominated IMF and World Bank. They planned to set up this New Development Bank by 2014.

At the BRICS leaders meeting in St Petersburg in September 2013, China committed $41 billion towards the pool; Brazil, India, and Russia $18 billion each; and South Africa $5 billion. China, which held the world's largest foreign exchange reserves and contributed the bulk of the currency pool, wanted a more significant managing role. China also wanted to be the location of the reserve. In October 2013, Russia's Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said that creating a $100 billion in funds designated to steady currency markets would be taken in early 2014. The Brazilian finance minister, Guido Mantega, confirmed that the fund would be created by March 2014. However, by April 2014, the currency reserve pool and development bank had yet to be set up, and the date was rescheduled to 2015.

In July 2014, during the sixth BRICS summit in Fortaleza, the BRICS members signed a document to create the US$100 billion New Development Bank (formerly known as the "BRICS Development Bank") and a reserve currency pool worth over another US$100 billion. Documents on cooperation between BRICS export credit agencies and an agreement of cooperation on innovation were also signed. The Fortaleza summit was followed by a BRICS meeting with the Union of South American Nations presidents in Brasilia.

Other initiatives

2024 BRICS Games in Russia

Since 2011, the National Institutes of Statistics of the BRICS group of countries (IBGE, Rosstat, the National Bureau of Statistics of China, the Central Statistics Office (India) and Statistics South Africa) produce an annual joint statistical publication to put statistical production in perspective, compare adopted methodologies and statistical results. The publication serves as a single data platform for the mutual benefit of participating countries.

Since 2012, the BRICS group of countries has been planning an optical fiber submarine communications cable system to carry telecommunications between the BRICS countries, known as the BRICS Cable. Part of the motivation for the project was the spying of the U.S. National Security Agency on all telecommunications that flowed in and out of United States territory. As of 2023, construction of the proposed cable network had not started.

In August 2019, the communications ministers of the BRICS countries signed a letter of intent to cooperate in the Information and Communication Technology sector. This agreement was signed in the fifth edition of the meeting of communication ministers of countries member of the group held in Brasília, Brazil.

Meeting of BRICS foreign ministers on 22 September 2022

The New Development Bank plans on giving out $15 billion to member states to help their struggling economies. Member countries are hoping for a smooth comeback and a continuation of economic trade pre-COVID-19. The 2020 BRICS summit was held virtually in St. Petersburg, Russia, and discussed how to handle the COVID-19 pandemic and how to fix the multilateral system via reforms. During the 13th BRICS summit, in 2021, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for a transparent investigation into the origins of COVID-19 under the World Health Organization with the full cooperation of "all countries", and Chinese leader Xi Jinping spoke directly afterwards, calling on BRICS countries to "oppose politicisation" of the process.

In May 2023, South Africa announced that they would be giving diplomatic immunity to Vladimir Putin and other Russian officials so that they could attend the 15th BRICS Summit despite the ICC arrest warrant for Putin. In July 2023, the Russian president announced that he will not personally attend the BRICS summit in Johannesburg on 22–24 August despite good relations with the South African government. Russian news channels noted that Putin will remotely participate online in all BRICS leaders' sessions, including its Business Forum, and also deliver his remarks virtually.

2024 expansion

BRICS representatives at the 16th BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia, 23 October 2024

In August 2023, at the 15th BRICS Summit, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that 6 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. On 30 November 2023, incoming Foreign Minister of Argentina Diana Mondino confirmed that Argentina would not join the BRICS. On 29 December 2023 the Government of Argentina sent a letter to all BRICS leaders to officially announce its withdrawal from the application process.

Saudi Arabia did not join BRICS at the start of 2024 as had been planned, and they announced in mid-January that they were still considering the matter. As of April 2024, the matter is still under consideration. The organizers touted the expansion as part of a plan to build a competing multipolar world order that uses Global South countries to challenge and compete against the western-dominated world order. China Daily used the expansion to claim that more developing countries were interested in joining BRICS.

On 24 October 2024, an additional 13 countries, namely Algeria, Belarus, Bolivia, Cuba, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Nigeria, Thailand, Turkey, Uganda, Uzbekistan and Vietnam, were invited to participate as observer "partner countries", observer countries that, while not officially a part of the bloc, would get some support from BRICS members. No membership invitations were extended.

Statistics

Currently, the group is dominated by China, which has about 70% of the organization's total GDP. Brazil, India, and China are among the world's ten largest countries by population, area, and gross domestic product (GDP, nominal and PPP). All five initial member states are members of the G20, with a combined nominal GDP of US$28 trillion (about 27% of the gross world product), a total GDP (PPP) of around US$65 trillion (35% of global GDP PPP), and an estimated US$5.2 trillion in combined foreign reserves (as of 2024).

BRICS+ accounts for 46% of the world’s population. BRICS+ share of world GDP at purchasing power parity (PPP) is 35.6% in 2022. China dominates the BRICS+ accounting for 52% of its total GDP (at PPP).

Summits

The grouping has held annual summits since 2009, with member countries taking turns to host. Before South Africa's admission, two BRIC summits were held, in 2009 and 2010. The first five-member BRICS summit was held in 2011 in China. The first nine-member BRICS summit was held in 2024 in Russia. The 2020, 2021, and 2022 summits were held via video-conference due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

No.	Dates	Host country	Host leader	Location	Notes
1st	16 June 2009	Russia	Dmitry Medvedev	Yekaterinburg (Sevastianov's House)	The summit was to discuss the global recession taking place at the time, future cooperation among states, and trade. Some of the specific topics discussed were food, trade, climate trade, and security for the members. They called out for a more influential voice and representation for up-and-coming markets. Note at the time South Africa was not yet admitted to the BRICS organization.
2nd	15 April 2010	Brazil	Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva	Brasília (Itamaraty Palace)	Guests: Jacob Zuma (President of South Africa) and Riyad al-Maliki (Foreign Minister of the Palestinian National Authority). The second summit continued on the conversation of the global recession and how to recover. They had a conversation on the IMF, climate change, and more ways to form cooperation among states.
3rd	14 April 2011	China	Hu Jintao	Sanya (Sheraton Sanya Resort)	First summit to include South Africa alongside the original BRIC countries. The third summit had members debating on the global and internal economies of countries.
4th	29 March 2012	India	Manmohan Singh	New Delhi (Taj Mahal Hotel)	The BRICS Cable announced an optical fibre submarine communications cable system that carries telecommunications between the BRICS countries. The fourth summit discussed how the organization could prosper from the global recession and how they could take advantage of that to help their economies. BRICS had the intention of improving their global power and providing adequate development for their state.
5th	26–27 March 2013	South Africa	Jacob Zuma	Durban (Durban ICC)	The fifth summit discusses the New Development Bank proposition and Contingent Reserve Agreement. BRICS also announced the Business Council and its Think Tank Council.
6th	14–17 July 2014	Brazil	Dilma Rousseff	Fortaleza (Centro de Eventos do Ceará)	BRICS New Development Bank and BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement agreements signed. The members of BRICS conversed with each other about political coordination, development, and economic growth. They established the Fortaleza Declaration and Action Plan.
7th	8–9 July 2015	Russia	Vladimir Putin	Ufa (Congress Hall)	Joint summit with SCO-EAEU. The seventh summit discussed global political and economic problems and better ways to foster cooperation among member states.
8th	15–16 October 2016	India	Narendra Modi	Benaulim (Taj Exotica)	Joint summit with BIMSTEC. The eighth BRICS summit debated on topics like counterterrorism, economies, and climate change. BRICS also issued the Goa Declaration and Action Plan, hoping to harden their relationships.
9th	3–5 September 2017	China	Xi Jinping	Xiamen (Xiamen International Conference Center)	Joint summit with EMDCD. The ninth summit was an event that talked about a bright future for BRICS and what their intended goals were. They also covered and debated international and regional issues with one another.
10th	25–27 July 2018	South Africa	Cyril Ramaphosa	Johannesburg (Sandton Convention Centre)	The tenth summit had the members discuss their rising industries in the hopes that they can cut a bigger slice of the industry market.
11th	13–14 November 2019	Brazil	Jair Bolsonaro	Brasília (Itamaraty Palace)	The theme of the 11th BRICS summit was "BRICS: economic growth for an innovative Future". The summit discussed advancements in the BRICS's science and innovation fields. Primarily trying to advance technology and digital currency. They made mutual agreements to help stop drug trafficking and organized crime; both internationally and internally.
12th	21–23 July 2020 (postponed due to COVID-19 pandemic) 17 November 2020 (video conference)	Russia	Vladimir Putin	Saint Petersburg	Joint summit with SCO. Discussing a mutual agreement on helping BRICS member countries to foster better living standards and quality of life for each country's people. Plans on focusing on peace, economies, and cultural societal issues.
13th	9 September 2021 (video conference)	India	Narendra Modi	New Delhi	BRICS Games 2021
14th	23 June 2022 (video conference)	China	Xi Jinping	Beijing	A major development on the summit was the creation of a new, basket type reserve currency. The currency, which is challenging the US dollar, combines BRICS currencies and is backed by precious metals.
15th	22–24 August 2023	South Africa	Cyril Ramaphosa	Johannesburg (Sandton Convention Centre)	Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates were invited to join the bloc. Full membership was scheduled to take effect on 1 January 2024. On December 29, 2023, the Government of Argentina sent a letter to all BRICS leaders officially declining the invitation to join the bloc. Saudi Arabia has not yet confirmed its acceptance.
16th	22–24 October 2024	Russia	Vladimir Putin	Kazan (Kazan Expo International Exhibition Centre)	Delegations from 35 countries and six international organisations participated. Attendance included 22 heads of state or government and UN Secretary-General. Discussions on membership and a new payments system aside, there were over 200 side meetings spread out through 2024.
17th	TBD 2025	Brazil	Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva	TBD

Member states

This section is an excerpt from Member states of BRICS § Member states.[edit]

Flag	Country	Capital	Area (km2)	Population (2016)	Density (/km2)	GDP per cap. (PPP)	HDI	Currency	Official languages	Leaders	Accession
	Brazil Federative Republic of Brazil	Brasília	8,515,767	203,062,512	25	18,686	0.754	Brazilian real (R$) (BRL)	Portuguese also see Languages of Brazil	Head of State: Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva	2009-06-16 (Informally, September 2006)
	Russia Russian Federation	Moscow	17,075,400	146,519,759	8.3	24,449	0.822	Russian rouble (₽) (RUB)	Russian also see Languages of Russia	Head of State: Vladimir Putin Head of Government: Mikhail Mishustin
	India Republic of India	New Delhi	3,287,240	1,284,480,000	364.4	10,484	0.640	Indian rupee (₹) (INR)	Hindi (Devanagari script) English Also see Languages of India	Head of State: Droupadi Murmu Head of Government: Narendra Modi
	China People's Republic of China	Beijing	9,640,011	1,374,820,000	139.6	21,224	0.727	Renminbi (Chinese yuan, ¥) (CNY)	Standard Chinese written in simplified characters see also languages of China	Head of State: Xi Jinping Head of Government: Li Qiang
	South Africa Republic of South Africa	Pretoria (executive) Cape Town (legislative) Bloemfontein (judicial)	1,221,037	58,048,332	42.4	16,090	0.713	South African rand (R) (ZAR)	12 languages	Head of State: Cyril Ramaphosa	2010-12-24
	Egypt Arab Republic of Egypt	Cairo	1,010,408	105,231,000	103.56	16,980	0.731	Egyptian pound (LE) (EGP)	Arabic	Head of State: Abdel Fattah el-Sisi Head of Government: Moustafa Madbouly	2024-01-01
	Ethiopia Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia	Addis Ababa	1,104,300	105,163,988	92.7	3,724	0.498	Ethiopian birr (BR) (ETB)	Afar Amharic Oromo Somali Tigrinya	Head of State: Taye Atske Selassie Head of Government: Abiy Ahmed
	Iran Islamic Republic of Iran	Tehran	1,648,195	79,011,700	48.0	17,443	0.766	Iranian rial (Rl) (IRR)	Persian	Head of State: Ali Khamenei Head of Government: Masoud Pezeshkian
	United Arab Emirates	Abu Dhabi	83,600	4,106,427	121	78,255	0.911	UAE dirham (AED)	Arabic	Head of State: Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan Head of Government: Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

Application and expansion process

While there is currently no formal application process to join BRICS, any hopeful government must receive the unanimous backing of all member states to receive an invitation. It was not until the early 2020s that discussions regarding allowing new states to join the club were widely held. Leaders and senior diplomats from the participating members began to discuss the prospect of adding additional members to the organization at that point.

In August 2023, at the 15th BRICS Summit, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates had been invited to join the organization on 1 January 2024.

On 30 December 2023, the new government of Argentina, which formally applied for BRICS membership under Alberto Fernández's government in 2022, officially declined the offer to join the bloc due to the new government's different foreign policy.

On 1 January 2024, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Ethiopia and Iran officially joined the bloc.

Saudi Arabia has not responded to an invitation to join BRICS, and is still considering joining.

On 2 September 2024, Turkey officially applied to join the bloc. At the same time, Turkey has been a NATO member since 18 February 1952 and is also a European Union candidate country. Turkey's EU membership process started on 3 October 2005 but was frozen on 13 March 2019. In September 2022, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced that his country would apply for membership in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. On 11 July 2024, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan stated in a statement to the U.S. Newsweek magazine that they did not consider Turkey's membership in NATO as an alternative to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and BRICS.

Algeria previously applied for membership in 2023, but later rejected it in September 2024, making Algeria the second country after Argentina to decline and stop its application.

Following the 2024 BRICS summit, Brazil blocked Venezuela's application to the bloc, largely due to the disputed 2024 Venezuelan elections and the Venezuelan crisis. The country in response recalled its ambassador from Brazil.

Since new members joined the acronym used has informally been BRICS+ or BRICS Plus.

Countries that have applied for membership

This section is an excerpt from Member states of BRICS § Countries that have applied for membership.[edit]

Saudi Arabia was invited to join at the 15th BRICS summit, but has not yet formalised its approval to become a BRICS member.

While Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates were not admitted as members during the 15th BRICS summit, they were among 22 countries applying for membership. South African Minister of Finance Enoch Godongwana said “There is a second batch of countries that are going to be added [to] BRICS." This means that there are plans for further BRICS expansion and the following countries are possible candidates due to their applications for membership

Flag	Country	Capital	Area (km2)	Population (2016)	Density (/km2)	GDP per cap. (PPP)	HDI	Currency	Official languages	Leaders	Application submitted
	Azerbaijan Republic of Azerbaijan	Baku	86,600	9,976,248	117	19,328	0.760	Azerbaijani manat (AZN)	Azerbaijani	Head of State: Ilham Aliyev Head of Government: Ali Asadov	2024
	Bangladesh People's Republic of Bangladesh	Dhaka	148,460	169,828,911	1,305	8,673	0.661	Bangladeshi taka (BDT)	Bengali	Head of State: Mohammed Shahabuddin Head of Government: Muhammad Yunus	2023
	Myanmar Republic of the Union of Myanmar	Naypyidaw	676,578	53,662,135	79.22	7,682	0.582	Burmese kyat (MMK)	Burmese	Head of State: Min Aung Hlaing Head of Government: Min Aung Hlaing	2024
	Pakistan Islamic Republic of Pakistan	Islamabad	881,913	241,499,431	273.8	6,955	0.540	Pakistani rupee (PKR)	Urdu English	Head of State: Asif Ali Zardari Head of Government: Shehbaz Sharif	2024
	Senegal Republic of Senegal	Dakar	196,722	18,847,519	90	4,324	0.517	West African CFA franc (XOF)	French Wolof Pulaar	Head of State: Bassirou Diomaye Faye Head of Government: Ousmane Sonko	2023
	Sri Lanka Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka	Kotte	65,610.2	22,037,000	337.7	14,234	0.780	Sri Lankan rupee (LKR)	Sinhala Tamil	Head of State: Anura Kumara Dissanayake Head of Government: Harini Amarasuriya	2024
	Syria Syrian Arab Republic	Damascus	185,180	23,865,423	118.33	2,900	0.557	Syrian pound (SYP)	Arabic	Head of State: vacant	2024
	Venezuela Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela	Caracas	916,445	30,518,260	33.74	3,474	0.699	Venezuelan bolívar (VED)	Spanish; Piapoco; Baniwa Locono; Other indigenous languages	Head of State and Government: Nicolás Maduro	2024

Financial architecture

The New Development Bank (NDB) is based in Shanghai.

The New Development Bank (NDB) and Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA) were signed into treaty at the 2014 BRICS summit in Brazil.

Equal distribution of shares among the founding shareholders of the NDB

Currently, the group is dominated by China, which has the largest share of the group's GDP, accounting to about 70% of the organization total.

The financial architecture of BRICS is made of the New Development Bank (NDB) and the Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA). These components were signed into a treaty in 2014 and became active in 2015.

New Development Bank

Further information: New Development Bank

The New Development Bank (NDB), formally referred to as the BRICS Development Bank, is a multilateral development bank operated by the five BRICS states. The bank's primary focus of lending is infrastructure projects with authorized lending of up to $34 billion annually. South Africa hosts the African headquarters of the bank. The bank has a starting capital of $50 billion, with wealth increased to $100 billion over time. Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa initially contributed $10 billion each to bring the total to $50 billion. As of 2020, it had 53 projects underway worth around $15 billion.

In 2021, Bangladesh, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Uruguay joined the NDB.

BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement

Further information: BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement

The BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA) 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. Emerging economies that experienced rapid economic liberalization went through increased economic volatility, bringing an uncertain macroeconomic environment. The CRA competes with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Along with the New Development Bank, it is an example of increasing South-South cooperation. It was established in 2015 by the BRICS countries. The legal basis is formed by the Treaty for the Establishment of a BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement, signed in Fortaleza in July 2014. With its inaugural meetings of the BRICS CRA Governing Council and Standing Committee, held on 4 September 2015, in Ankara, Turkey It entered into force upon ratification by all BRICS states, announced at the 7th BRICS summit in July 2015.

BRICS payment system

Main article: BRICS PAY

At the 2015 BRICS summit in Russia, ministers from the BRICS states initiated consultations for a payment system that would be an alternative to the SWIFT system. The stated goal was to initially move to settlements in national currencies. The Central Bank of Russia highlighted the main benefits as backup and redundancy in case there were disruptions to the SWIFT system.

China also launched its alternative to SWIFT: the Cross-Border Interbank Payment System, which enables financial institutions worldwide to send and receive information about financial transactions. India also has its alternative Structured Financial Messaging System (SFMS), as do Russia SPFS and Brazil Pix.

Potential common currency and BRICS Bridge

BRICS countries committed to study the feasibility of a new common currency or similar, at the 2023 BRICS summit in South Africa. Fair and easier international trade, as well as a major reduction in costs of transactions, would be some of the reasons for the countries to forge a currency union.

BRICS Bridge—a successor to MBridge, and probably a merger with BRICS PAY—makes it possible for central banks to support cross-border transactions and payments with their own central bank digital currency (CBDC) based on an automatic cross-border Interbank payment system for settlement and clearance. It is designed to be independent of any single nation or central bank, and every central bank can opt out and has control of their CBDC exchange rate.

One alternative for the currency name has been labelled as "R5" (from the five currencies renminbi, ruble, rupee, real, and rand), or with other multilateral.

Reception

The five leaders of BRICS in Brasília, Brazil, in November 2019

Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro welcoming the BRICS leaders

China

In 2012, Hu Jintao, the then General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and President of China, described the BRICS countries as defenders and promoters of developing countries and a force for world peace. Western analysts have highlighted potential divisions and weaknesses in the grouping, including significant economic instabilities, disagreements among the members over UN Security Council reform, and India and China's disputes over territorial issues.

United States

On 9 April 2013, Isobel Coleman, director of the Civil Society, Markets, and Democracy Program at the American think tank Council on Foreign Relations, and later U.S. representative to the UN, claimed that the BRICS members share a lack of consensus. They uphold drastically different political systems, from vibrant liberal democracies in Brazil and South Africa to entrenched oligarchy in Russia, and their economies are poorly integrated and differ in size by orders of magnitude. She also claimed that the significant difference in GDP influences the reserves: China accounts for over 41% of the contribution, which in turn leads to its bigger political say within the association.

A multi-year study at Tufts University published in July 2023 found that the "common portrayal of BRICS as a China-dominated group primarily pursuing anti-U.S. agendas" was misplaced. The study asserted: "The BRICS countries connect around common development interests and a quest for a multipolar world order in which no single power dominates. Yet BRICS consolidation has turned the group into a potent negotiation force that now challenges Washington's geopolitical and economic goals".

After the August 2023 BRICS Summit, Con Coughlin—defense and foreign affairs editor at The Daily Telegraph—claimed "the challenge BRICS presents to the established world order seems destined to failure" and accused the organization of being used by China as a vehicle for expanding its global influence. Coughlin also noted the contradictions within the organization, such as the border dispute between China and India, and called for greater Western engagement with India as part of a new strategic alliance.

According to the Atlantic Council's Thomas Hill in December 2023, the de-dollarization efforts within BRICS, particularly in North Africa, present a significant challenge to US interests. Replacing the dollar could limit the US's ability to run deficits and maintain low interest rates, and undermine the effectiveness of US sanctions and SWIFT.

BBC assesses BRICS' US dollar reliance decrease projects as "likely aren’t viable, because many member states’ economies cannot afford to wean themselves off of it."

In November 2024 in a post on Truth Social United States president-elect Donald Trump threatened a 100% United States tariff on countries that pursued a BRICS currency or moved to favor another currency instead of the U.S. dollar.

India

In 2014, the Indian Marxist author Vijay Prashad raised the limitations of the BRICS as a political and economic "locomotive of the South" because they follow neoliberal policies. They have neither established new counter-balancing institutions nor come up with an alternative ideology. Furthermore, the BRICS project, argues Prashad, cannot challenge the primacy of the United States and NATO.

Global opinion

Russian President Vladimir Putin with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi during the 16th BRICS Summit in Kazan

According to a Gallup International poll conducted between October and December 2023, almost a third of people around the world had never heard of BRICS but Western countries were much more negative towards the alliance than elsewhere. The most negative attitudes were found in Sweden (45%), Spain (30%), the USA (30%), Portugal (29%), and Ukraine (29%) while the most positive net attitudes were in Russia (38%), Iran (37%), Nigeria (36%), Saudi Arabia (33%) and Malaysia (32%). In India, 36% had a positive view of BRICS while 29% had a negative view.

BRICS Pro Tempore Presidency

The group at each summit elects one of the heads of state of the component countries to serve as President Pro Tempore of the BRICS. In 2019, the position was held by the president of Brazil.

The priorities of the Brazilian Pro Tempore Presidency for 2019 are the following: strengthening the cooperation in science, technology, and innovation, enhancement of the cooperation on digital economy, invigoration of cooperation on the fight against transnational crime —especially organized crime, money laundering, and drug trafficking, and rapprochement between the New Development Bank (NDB) and the BRICS Business Council.

The current BRICS President Pro Tempore is from Russia and their goals are: investing in BRICS countries to strengthen their economies, cooperating in the energy and environmental industries, helping with young children, and coming up with resolutions on migration and peacekeeping.

Current leaders

Current leading member state representatives:

Member	Brazil	Russia	India	China	South Africa
Image
Name	Lula da Silva	Vladimir Putin	Narendra Modi	Xi Jinping	Cyril Ramaphosa
Posi­tion	President of Brazil	President of Russia	Prime Minister of India	President of China	President of South Africa

Member	Egypt	Ethiopia	Iran	United Arab Emirates
Image
Name	Abdel Fattah el-Sisi	Abiy Ahmed	Masoud Pezeshkian	Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan
Posi­tion	President of Egypt	Prime Minister of Ethiopia	President of Iran	President of the United Arab Emirates

See also

• Belt and Road Initiative – Chinese global infrastructure project
• BRICS Games – Multi-sport event involving athletes from the BRICS+ Nations
• Developing country – Nation with a lower living standard relative to more developed countries
• East–West dichotomy – Perceived difference between the Eastern and Western worlds
• Emerging power – Nation or block with steadily rising influence in world affairs
• List of multilateral free-trade agreements – Free trade agreements listPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets
• MIKTA – Informal partnership between Mexico, Indonesia, South Korea, Turkey and Australia
• G7 – Intergovernmental political and economic forum
• Potential superpowers – Entity speculated to be or become a superpowerPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets
• Shanghai Cooperation Organisation – Eurasian multilateral security organization
• List of country groupings
• BRICS PAY
• Member states of BRICS
• List of BRICS summit attendees
• List of country groupings
• BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement
• BRICS Universities League

Further reading

• Miranda, Isabella Tamine Parra; Moletta, Juliana; Pedroso, Bruno; Pilatti, Luiz Alberto; Picinin, Claudia Tania (1 April 2021). "A Review on Green Technology Practices at BRICS Countries: Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa". SAGE Open. 11 (2). doi:10.1177/21582440211013780. ISSN 2158-2440.
• Verma, Raj; Papa, Mihaela (2021). "BRICS amidst India-China Rivalry". Global Policy. 12 (4): 509–513. doi:10.1111/1758-5899.12977. ISSN 1758-5899.
• Papa, Mihaela; Verma, Raj (2021). "Scenarios for BRICS Evolution in Light of the India–China Conflict". Global Policy. 12 (4): 539–544. doi:10.1111/1758-5899.13010. ISSN 1758-5899.

Declarations

• "Kazan Declaration : Strengthening Multilateralism For Just Global Development And Security". Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India. 23 October 2024. Archived from the original on 7 December 2024.
• "15th BRICS Summit: Johannesburg II Declaration" (PDF). 24 August 2023. Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 August 2023 – via Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India.
• "XIV BRICS Summit Beijing Declaration". Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India. 23 June 2022. Archived from the original on 23 June 2022.
• "XIII BRICS Summit- New Delhi Declaration". Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India. 9 September 2021. Archived from the original on 9 September 2021.
• "XII BRICS Summit Moscow Declaration". 17 November 2020 – via Ministry of Foreign Affairs, China.

External links

• Media related to BRICS at Wikimedia Commons
• Quotations related to BRICS at Wikiquote
• BRICS information portal