BRICS+: An impressive enlargement

2024-01-18 17:25:25

By: Isidouro Karderinis

In the early hours of the 20th24, as of January 1st, five more countries became full members of BRICS, a transnational association, which until then was composed of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, and thus became BRICS+ (BRICS Plus ), totaling ten countries.

Egypt, located in northeastern Africa and partly on the Sinai Peninsula, which is an isthmus to southwestern Asia, which otOrnament a transcontinental country, it is considered a great power in North Africa, the Mediterranean Sea, the Islamic world and the Red Sea. A populous – with 104.5 million inhabitants – historic Arab country with a long and very rich cultural heritage and theat the same time the most powerful military country in Africa that controls the strategic Suez Canal. Egypt also has huge natural gas reserves, estimated at 2,180 cubic kilometers, and Egyptian liquefied natural gas is exported to many countries.

Ethiopia is a country located in the Horn of Africa, in the extreme east of the African continent. With a population of 107.5 million inhabitants, according toofficialestimated for 2023, it is the most populous Mediterranean state in the world. A poor but rapidly developing country and with great geostrategic weight in Africa, which in addition to its agricultural production, which contributes 41% of GDP, also has the largest water resources on the entire continent. Ethiopia is Africa’s largest coffee producer and second largest corn producer.

Iran is a Middle Eastern country in Southwest Asia. It has a population of 88.5 million according to estimatesthe United Nations average for 2022. Iran is considered a major regional power and occupies a prominent position in issues of energy policy and the global economy, mainly due to its large reserves of oil and natural gas. Iran was the eighth largest oil producing country in the world in the year 2022, with 3,822,000 barrels per day. At the same time. it has strong armed forces and a large scientific body, stationed in important parts of the planet, such as the Arabian Sea and the Persian Gulf.

Saudi Arabia is a country on the Arabian Peninsula, occupying most of it, around 80%, and which is bathed by the Persian Gulf to the northeast and the Red Sea to the west. According to an official estimate for 2022, its population is 32.2 million inhabitants, 30% of which are non-Saudi citizens (2013 estimate). Saudi Arabia’s economy is based on oil, from which approximatelyand 75% of budget revenues and 90% of exports. Saudi Arabia in the year 2022 ranked second in the world, after the USA, with a production of 12,136,000 barrels per day and holds 17% of the total proven oil reserves on a global scale.

The United Arab Emirates, abbreviated as UAE, is a federal state made up of seven emirates, in the extreme southeast of PeArabian ninsula. The United Arab Emirates is bordered by the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman and borders Saudi Arabia and the Sultanate of Oman. They have a population of 9.3 million according to an official estimate for 2020. The country is rich inoil and natural gas deposits and its population enjoys an income comparable to that of developed Western countries. The United Arab Emirates was the seventh largest oil producing country in the world in the year 2022, with 4,020,000 barrels per day.

As for Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which are among thehe richest countries in terms of GDP per capita have continued to record economic growth despite global uncertainties, including high interest rates, inflation and geopolitical tensions, as they focus on diversifying their economies.

Saudi Arabia’s economy grew, according to the IMF, 8.7% in 2022 – the highest annual growth rate among the 20 largest economies in the world – and just 0.8% in the entire year 2023. On the other hand, the emirate economythe United Arabs grew 3.4%. % in 2023, with oil GDP growing by 0.7% and non-oil GDP by 4.5%, supported by strong performances in tourism, real estate, construction, transport, manufacturing and increased capital expenditure.

With this entry, therefore, the group, which appears as a rival force in the G7, is now expanding in the Middle East and includes in its midst the countries, traditional allies of the West, which now they manifest tendencies towards autonomy and, of course, they control a large part of the world’s hydrocarbon production, further increasing the group’s financial solidity.

Thus, the BRICS+ countries collectively now represent 45% of the world’s population with approximately 3.5 billion people, one third of the Earth’s solid surface, 44% of total global oil production, as well as almost 1/3 of global GDP, totaling approximately 29 trillion dollars, having surpassed the G7, the group of the seven most powerful economies in the developed world, in terms of purchasing power parity.

At the same time, there are at least thirty other nations in the developing world that have already expressed a strong interest in joining the group. ANDAmong these countries are Algeria, Congo, Bolivia, Venezuela, Indonesia and Kazakhstan, which are not rich countries, but have enormous mineral wealth and would very much like to free themselves from the bond of Western multinational corporations and the dollar.

So, in this sense, theThe BRICS group countries have created the New Development Bank (NDB) since 2014, while much of the trade between them is done in national currencies rather than dollars. They are also moving forward with discussions and elaborations on the creation of a co-currencymum (delayed, however, by Indian objections). And they are still looking for alternative solutions for international transactions against SWIFT. As a result, all these ongoing movements are gradually leading to a de-dollarization of the global economic system.

At the next BRICS+ summit, to be held in October 2024, in Kazan, capital of Tatarstan, a Russian city located at the confluence of the Volga and Kazanka rivers, in Central European Russia, other energy giant countries-can join the group and this will have the effect of increasing control of the global energy market from the 40% it is today to a higher percentage.

To conclude, I would like to emphasize that the expansion of the BRICS group is causing turbulence in Western countries and especially in the USA, which continue with instinctive reactions, with the mere idea of ​​the definitive loss of their global leadership, and is a true milestone towards to the inevitable historical course of formation of a new intercontinental world order, a polycentric world.

Isidoros Karderinis was born in Athens in 1967. He is a novelist, poet and columnist. He studied economics and completed postgraduate studies in tourism economics. With articles published in newspapers, magazines and websites around the world. His poems have been translated into English, French and Spanish and published in poetry anthologies, literary magazines and newspaper literary columns.

He published eight books of poetry and three novels in Greece. Her books have been translated and published in the United States, Great Britain, Italy and Spain.

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