Issues associated with BRICS
Introduction:
- The BRICS acronym stands for Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, the top five economies in the world.
- It has been claimed that FOMO, or the fear of missing out, was the driving force behind the rush to join BRICS, which joins Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa and accounts for 23% of the global GDP and 40% of the world’s population.
Recent occurrences:
- The geopolitical shifts following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have triggered a frenzy of group buying as middle-sized nations with respectable economies in the global south seek both voice and leverage. Both potential outcomes of the BRICS, a group of five regional powerhouses, are present.
- More than 20 countries are on hold. If news reports are to be believed, five candidates — Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, the UAE, Egypt, and Argentina — may be admitted this August at the Cape Town conference.
Benefits of an expanded BRICS:
- A rise in membership is also likely to tip the group’s scales in favour of China, the second-largest economy in the world. Larger groups are always preferable than small clubs, especially when the group’s avowed objective is to serve the interests of the non-monolithic global south. Along with the five prospective new members this year, there are also others who are waiting to join the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative.
- There is a danger that some people may view this as an anti-American bloc led by China.
India’s concerns:
- Given that Delhi has just demonstrated a fresh commitment to strengthening the bilateral relationship with the US, its reluctance to expand makes logical. In fact, it’s thought that China is already promoting the long list of potential members with implicit backing from Russia.
- India is concerned that any new members must comply to the carefully considered objective criteria for membership, collectively discussed among the current members, in order for everyone to comprehend the justification for expansion. This concern is highlighted by the BRICS proclamation from the previous year.
India’s perspective:
- At the BRICS foreign ministers’ summit last month, external affairs minister S. Jaishankar defined BRICS expansion as a “work in progress” that had to take into account how the present BRICS members engaged with one another and how BRICS engages with non-BRICS countries.
- Given that many of the applicants are also friends of India, Delhi appears to have permitted a slight expansion of five members after discovering that it might not be able to entirely prohibit one.
Conclusion:
- The challenge would be to keep the organisation from turning into a Chinese bandwagon for both the newcomers and the founding BRICS members, India, Brazil, and South Africa (remember IBSA?).
