This is how China tries to expand into the BRICS
Nineteen countries, including Saudi Arabia and Iran, are interested in joining the BRICS. China is rubbing its hands, while Russia, India, Brazil and South Africa could lose out. Here because
A group of nineteen countries has shown interest in joining the BRICS, the group of emerging economies (at least originally) that brings together Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa: together they account for 41 percent of the population and 24 percent of global gross domestic product.
THE MEETING IN CAPE TOWN
The eventual enlargement of the BRICS was announced by the South African ambassador in the group, Anil Sooklal, in view of the meeting of the member countries in Cape Town on 2 and 3 June.
“What will be discussed” at the meeting, Sooklal said, “is the expansion of the BRICS and the ways in which this will happen. Thirteen countries have formally requested to join, and six more have requested informally. We receive applications for membership every day”.
CHINA CHALLENGES THE AMERICAN WORLD ORDER
As reconstructed by Bloomberg , it was China – last year, when it held the presidency of the group – that initiated the dialogue on the expansion of the BRICS with the aim of increasing its international influence and rivaling the world order led by US: the United Nations Organization, an expression of developed countries, was founded in San Francisco in 1945 and is based in New York.
WILL CHINA END DOMINATE THE BRICS?
Today, China is no longer classified as a developing economy: it is the second largest in the world, with a GDP more than double the size of the other BRICS members combined. This is why – writes Bloomberg – Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa fear that the enlargement of the group could dilute their relevance, especially if Beijing were to bring in many of its allies.
Since its formation in 2006, the group has added only one new member: South Africa in 2010, changing the acronym from BRIC to BRICS.
WHO WANTS TO JOIN THE BRICS
Among the countries that have formally applied to join the BRICS are Saudi Arabia and Iran, Sooklal said: Riyadh and Tehran have recently reactivated their diplomatic relations thanks to an agreement brokered by Beijing .
Among the countries that have only expressed interest, however, there are Algeria , Argentina, Bahrain, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Indonesia, plus a country in East Africa and one in Africa but which Sooklal did not explicitly mention.
– Read also: Tunisia in the BRICS?
Despite the commonality of views on various issues (for example the definition of an alternative pole to the western one), the BRICS are not a real alliance. However, at the June 2022 summit, Russian President Vladimir Putin invited the other members of the group to work towards the "formation of a truly multipolar system of intergovernmental relations".
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/brics-allargamento-diciannove-paesi/ on Sun, 30 Apr 2023 05:46:31 +0000.