The expansion of the BRICS, the dawn of a new world order?

The group of emerging economies BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) gave the bell this week by announcing in Johannesburg the accession to the bloc of six countries, including Argentina, and left a question mark: Will this expansion mark the beginning of a new world order? ?

Amid enormous expectation, the President of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, delivered the news last Thursday before hundreds of journalists who packed a room at the Sandton Convention Center, Johannesburg’s financial district, where the last day of the conference was taking place. XV Summit of Heads of State and Government of the group.

The leaders of the block had approved the access to the club of Argentina, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Ethiopia, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, which will become “full members” from January 1, 2024revealed the president.

Without clarifying the accession criteria, Ramaphosa specified that there is “a consensus on the first phase of this expansion process and other phases will follow.”

Some 40 countries had expressed a desire to join the bloc, according to South Africa, which holds the bloc’s rotating presidency this year and has received formal applications from 23 nations, including Argentina, Bolivia, Cuba, Honduras and Venezuela.

Brazil, Russia, India and China created the BRIC group in 2006an informal club joined by South Africa (the S in the acronym) in 2010. These countries represent more than 42% of the world’s population and 30% of the planet’s territory, as well as 23% of the gross domestic product (GDP). and 18% of world trade.

Since then, the group, erected as a champion of the Global South and scourge of the global hegemony of the West, had not opened its doors to anyone due to disagreements between its members.

China, the second global economy, bet very strongly on expanding the BRICS -who crave more weight in international institutions, dominated by United States and Europe-, because Beijing seeks more geopolitical muscle against Washington, the world’s leading economy.

“HISTORICAL” EXTENSION

”Chinese President Xi Jinping could not contain his euphoria and called the expansion “historic”, and his colleagues in the bloc jumped on that bandwagon, albeit with more tempered assessments.

The president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who bid for the entry of neighboring Argentina, “welcomed” the new members and assured that “the BRICS will continue to be the engine of a fairer world order.”

But what does enlargement mean for that world order? “This is a historic moment (…) where the relationship of what we have seen up to now, which was a unipolar world very quickly becoming a multipolar world, can completely change,” the famous Uruguayan journalist Jorge Gestoso replied to EFE at the summit. who interviewed numerous international leaders in his long career.

Gestoso believes that the planet is heading towards a new international order, but warns that the “unipolar world” is not “going to sit idly by (…) and possibly we will see sticks in the wheel along the way”. More cautious The international policy expert Sanusha Naidu, from the Institute for Global Dialogue (IGD) of South Africa, said that she does not “necessarily envision a new world order”, but does admit that the expansion of the BRICS it alters “the dynamics of that world order by breaking down barriers”.

Although there is no doubt that the enlargement offers the bloc greater economic and political influence, it could also provoke new tensions between the members and the West given the inclusion, for example, of Iran, a bitter enemy of the United States.

It should be remembered in this regard that Russia and Iran share a common cause in their fight against the sanctions and diplomatic isolation against them led by Washington, and that they deepened their economic ties after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

THE POSSIBLE PROBLEM IN ARGENTINA

The entry of Argentina could also cause problems in the group “because there is still the possibility of a change of government” in the country, Brazilian analyst Gustavo de Carvalho, from the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA), told EFE.

The presidential candidate of the opposition coalition Together for Change, Patricia Bullrich, already expressed this Thursday her “opposite position” to Argentina’s entry. “Argentina, under our government, will not be in the BRICS”, warned Bullrich in a speech with a view to the general elections on October 22.

In the economic and commercial field, Gestoso pointed out that the expansion – which includes three major oil producers such as Saudi Arabia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates – could lead to a “tectonic movement” in the development of “a new financial architecture that can change the rules of the game in the world.

In fact, this is where the BRICS have achieved their greatest success so far: the establishment of the New Development Bank (NDB), a body modeled on the World Bank (WB) to finance infrastructure projects.

While the West digests the expansion of BRICSthe UN Secretary General, António Guterres, recalled this Thursday at the bloc’s summit that “today’s global governance structures reflect the world of yesterday” and, therefore, “must be reformed to reflect the power and economic realities current”.

(With EFE information)