BRICS is an acronym used to name a group made up of a series of emerging countries that, since 2006, have been trying to improve their economic conditions and position at the international level. In 2001, Goldman Sachs economist Jim O’Neill, in a research paper on the growth potential of some nations, coined this term, initially BRIC, which included Brazil, Russia, India and China. Taking advantage of a debate at the United Nations Assembly in New York in 2006, the foreign ministers of these four countries held a first high-level meeting of the BRICswhich gave way, three years later, to a major diplomatic meeting in Russia that became the bloc’s first summit.

It was in this year, in 2009, when it is considered that the BRIC was born as a group, at the initiative of Moscow, in order to face a world dominated by the West. Every year one of the member countries assumes the rotating presidency of the bloc, and is in charge of directing the summit that is also held annually. A year after its birth as a BRIC, South Africa asked to be integrated into the bloc, and once the formal admission process was completed, on December 24 of that year and after a formal invitation from China, the African country joined the bloc. With it, the letter S was added to the acronic, creating the name that until now has been used to designate the block: BRICS.

In general terms, the BRICS summits are held to improve the economic conditions of the countries that make up the block, and work collaboratively to achieve this end.

What countries are part of the BRICS bloc?

At its founding, the group consisted of only four countries: Brazil, Russia, India and China, whose initials formed the acronym that names the group. with the sum of South Africa the S was added at the end. Until 2010, the five BRICS countries represented more than 40% of the world’s population, and a quarter of the world economy.

Since the entry of the South African country, numerous countries have also expressed their intention to join the group. ArgentinaFor example, he expressed his interest during the Government of Cristina Fernández Kirschner, but also upon the arrival of Mauricio Macri. One day before the 2023 summit began, the Argentine president, Alberto Fernández, confirmed that he would not attend as his incorporation into the bloc was not planned. Finally, the group confirmed his entry, which is why Fernández sent a message to the Argentines to celebrate the “great opportunity” to strengthen the country joining the alliance. “It is a new step in the consolidation of the fraternal country and open to the world that we always dream of being.”

In addition to Argentina, in this XV summit, the BRICS confirmed the accession of another five new countries to the block. Thus, the countries that make up the group would be:

  • Brazil (2009, founder)
  • Russia (2009, founder)
  • India (2009, founder)
  • China (2009, founder)
  • South Africa (2010)
  • Argentina (2024)
  • Saudi Arabia (2024)
  • Egypt (2024)
  • Ethiopia (2024)
  • United Arab Emirates (2024)
  • Iran (2024)

Why do other countries want to be BRICS?

According to the current president of the BRICS, the South African Cyril Ramaphosa, some 40 countries have expressed their desire to join the club and that they have received “formal expressions of interest” from 23 countries, including Argentina – which will finally become a member of the BRICS effectively in 2024 – Bolivia, Cuba, Honduras and Venezuela. Other countries that have expressed their intention to join the bloc are Indonesia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo or Kazakhstan. But what is his intention? The group, for many countries, is seen as a alternative to global bodies dominated by Western powers traditional.

For all the countries that want to join the bloc, joining the BRICS would imply greater financing for development, as well as improved trade and investment relations. The president of bolivianLuis Arce, for example, has supported his interest in entering the BRICS to curb your dependence on the US dollar in foreign trade, resorting instead to the Chinese yuan, in line with the stated goal of the group’s leaders.

For its part, Algeria requested its membership in the group in 2022, although it has not been announced at this summit. Algeria, rich in natural resources such as gas and oil, seeks to be a shareholder of the New Development Bankknown as the BRICS Bank, to diversify its economy and strengthen its relationship, among other countries, with China.

What is the BRICS Bank?

Created in 2014, the New BRICS Development Bank It is the bloc’s alternative to the World Bank that launched the group when it was already made up of five countries. It was agreed that its headquarters would be in Shanghai (China), it had an initial capital subscribed and disbursed of 50,000 million dollars, contributed in equal parts by the partners.

The main bodies of this bank are the board of governors, the board of directors, the presidency and the vice presidency. The idea of ​​the BRICS Bank is to offer alternative financing to developing countries, compensating for the “credit deficiencies” of multinationals, in the words of former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff. He BRICS Bank was made up of the five countries of the group, although in 2021 the board of governors approved the accession of Bangladesh, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt, integrated since 2021 the first two and since 2023, the third. Uruguay, whose admission is approved, is in the process of joining the bank.

Together with the creation of the bank, the BRICS Reserve Fundthis as an alternative to the International Monetary Fund.