2023-08-24 18:30:37
© Reuters. Cúpula dos Brics in Johannesburg 8/24/2023 Marco Longari/Pool via REUTERS
Por Carien du Plessis e Anait Miridzhanian e Bhargav Acharya
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – BRICS leaders have invited Saudi Arabia, Iran, Ethiopia, Egypt, Argentina and the United Arab Emirates to join the group, in a move aimed at accelerating their effort to reshape a world order seen as outdated.
The group’s leaders have left the door open for future expansion, potentially paving the way for dozens more countries to join, motivated by a desire to level the playing field globally that they see rigged against them.
The expansion adds economic weight to the BRICS, whose current members are Brazil, China, Russia, India and South Africa. They could also amplify their declared ambition to become a reference in the “Global South”.
But long-standing tensions may persist between members who seek to turn the group into a counterweight to the West — namely China and Russia — and those who continue to nurture close ties with the United States and Europe.
“This expansion in membership is historic,” Chinese President Xi Jinping said in remarks following the announcement. “It shows the determination of the BRICS countries to unite and cooperate with developing countries more broadly.”
Geopolitical polarization linked to the war in Ukraine and the decline of China’s relations with the United States is spurring efforts by Beijing and Moscow to transform the BRICS into a viable counterbalance to the West.
The new candidates were announced by the South African president, Cyril Ramaphosa, who is organizing a summit of Brics leaders.
“BRICs has embarked on a new chapter in its effort to build a world that is just, a world that is also inclusive and prosperous,” he said.
Candidate nations will formally become members on January 1, 2024.
“We have consensus on the first phase of this expansion process and other phases will follow”, stated Ramaphosa at a press conference.
Lula said that promises of globalization had failed, adding that it was time to revitalize cooperation with developing countries, as “there is a risk of nuclear war” — an apparent allusion to rising tensions between Russia and the West over the conflict in Ukraine.
UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed, whose country is already a member of the bloc’s New Development Bank, said he appreciated his country’s inclusion in the expansion.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed called the decision by BRICS leaders to invite Ethiopia to join the group as “a great moment”.
The countries invited to join reflect the individual desire of group members to bring allies.
Lula has lobbied for Argentina’s inclusion, while Egypt maintains close commercial ties with Russia and India.
Russia and Iran have found common cause in their shared struggle against US-led sanctions and diplomatic isolation, with their economic ties deepening in the wake of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi celebrated his country’s invitation to join the BRICS with a nod to Washington.
“The expansion of the BRICS shows that the unilateral approach is on the way out,” he was quoted as saying by Iranian Arabic-language television network Al Alam.
REBALANCE THE WORLD ORDER
In a reflection of the bloc’s growing influence, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres joined in Thursday’s expansion announcement.
He repeated a recurring call by the Brics for reforms of institutions such as the UN Security Council, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, stating that global governance structures “reflect the world of yesterday”.
“For multilateral institutions to remain truly universal, they must reform to reflect today’s power and economic realities. In the absence of such reform, fragmentation is inevitable,” he said.
Debate over expansion was at the top of the agenda at the three-day summit in Johannesburg. While all Brics members publicly expressed their support for the bloc’s growth, there were divisions among leaders over how much and how quickly.
More than 40 countries have expressed an interest in joining BRICS, South African officials say, and 22 have formally applied to be admitted.
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