Por: Isidoros Karderinis
Brazil, Russia, India and China originally formed the bloc in 2009 after a series of meetings and understandings. The first BRIC Summit was held in Yekaterinburg, Russia, on June 16 of the same year, where the heads of state involved agreed to strengthen dialogue and cooperation between them.
The following year, in Brasilia, Brazil, in April 2010, the second Summit was held, where the leaders of these countries emphasized the need for a multidimensional global intergovernmental system.
Then, at their third meeting in New York in September 2010, the BRICs agreed on South Africa’s entry. South Africa managed to join after a great effort as a result of its active foreign policy, this coalition of states changing it from “BRIC” to “BRICS”.
A first announcement of the creation of a New Development Bank (NDB) was made at the Fourth Summit in March 2012 in New Delhi, India, formalized at its Fifth Summit in Durban, South Africa in 2013, with the clear intention of independence from the BRICS by the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, United States and European Union. Agreement for its establishment, after the resolution of disputes over organizational issues, was finally reached in 2014, during the sixth BRICS meeting in Fortaleza, Brazil.
The BRICS countries comprise 40% of the world’s population, which is equivalent to more than 3.1 billion people. The BRICS countries coexist with different degrees of development and different strategies.
Brazil is the largest country in South America, both in population (around 213 million) and in area, as it occupies only 1/3 of South America. It is also the fourth richest country in the Americas in terms of GDP. However, lacking adequate infrastructure (inadequate road and rail network, inadequate port infrastructure, etc.) they do not allow it to emerge as an economic superpower. According to the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Index, Brazil ranked 108th out of 137 economies in 2017 in terms of the overall quality of its infrastructure. Corruption scandals are also present in the country. Brazil deals with regional issues.
Russia, which is the largest transcontinental country in the world with global influence and a large economy, also has the largest nuclear arsenal on the planet and enormous military power, which it has used in Syria and now in Ukraine. Russia offers the best standard of living for its residents compared to the rest of the BRICS countries, with 3.5% of GDP spent on education and 3.1% on public health. The number of residents living below the poverty line is only 0.2% of its population. The Russian economy suffers, however, from the critical problem of corruption – which exists in all countries to a greater or lesser extent – as well as a significant lack of banking infrastructure, due to insufficiently developed financial markets, difficulty in obtaining loans and Limited investment options.
India is an emerging world power with an ever-growing economy. It is currently the fifth largest economy in the world based on its GDP, while its territory is home to the second largest population in the world after China, reaching around 1.4 billion people. The country’s GDP growth is among the highest in the world in the last decade, reaching an annual growth of between 6 and 7%. However, India has one of the lowest per capita incomes in the world while facing huge social problems within it due to poverty. India has the lowest percentages of GDP spent on education and health among the BRICS, at 2.7% and 1.2% respectively. India is regionally oriented.
Home to 1.4 billion people, China is expanding rapidly with economic penetration into Asia, Latin America, Africa and other regions of the world. It is the economic giant of the East with an annual growth rate of 6.6%, thus threatening US economic primacy. China has been the world’s largest exporter since 2014. At the same time, China, although the world’s second-largest economy, remains a middle-income country, as its per capita income is still only about a quarter of that of countries in high income. and an estimated 375 million Chinese live below the $5.50 a day poverty line. Finally, corruption appears at particularly high rates.
South Africa, due to its geographic position in the extreme south of the continent, which gives it access to two oceans, is a hub country. South Africa is China’s biggest trading partner in Africa. At the same time, hundreds of Chinese companies, both state and private, are currently active in the country. South Africa’s economy is the second largest on the African continent after Nigeria. It has natural wealth in gold, silver and coal, but also one of the highest rates of inequality in the world. The richest 10% of the population own about 71% of net wealth, while the poorest 60% own 7% of net wealth. It is a country with a particular political weight in Africa as the only African member state of the G20 group, which, however, needs a reform effort for its greater economic development.
The BRICS are, therefore, the opposing camp of the West, whether expressed politically, through the United States-Anglo-Saxon countries-European Union alliance, whether militarily, with NATO, or economically, with international economic organizations of American origin, such as the IMF, the World Bank or the World Trade Organization. The bloc’s strategic direction is close cooperation to effectively and successfully counter the US-dominated international financial architecture.
After fifteen years, during which many questioned the viability of the scheme, the existing global balances led to the enlargement of the bloc. Many countries have expressed their desire to become members of the BRICS, such as Argentina, Egypt, Venezuela, Mexico, Iran, Vietnam, Bangladesh and others.
In closing, I would like to emphasize that the agenda of the BRICS, which have managed to consolidate their position in the world’s political and economic scenario, leads to a reduction in the dominance of the US and the Western world in general and the establishment of a new multipolar reality.
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 has 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.