BRICS lists six applicants for admission in January

Admin I Friday, August 25, 2023

 

JOHANNESBURG – BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) have slated six new applicants for admission in January 2024.

The six countries are Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Iran, Ethiopia, Egypt and Argentina. BRICS is coming into force as a rival to the G7, which has United States, United Kingdom, Canada, France, Japan,  Italy, Germany as well as the European Union.

“On January 1, 2024, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates , Iran, Ethiopia, Egypt and Argentina will become full-fledged members of the BRICS, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced at the organization’s 15th summit in Johannesburg on August 24.

BRICS, he said has embarked on a new chapter in its effort to build a world that is fair, a world that is just, a world that is also inclusive and prosperous,” he asserted.

The rationale for bringing precisely these countries into the bloc, with the exception of Ethiopia, is attributable to what they each bring to the table in terms of economic and logistics advantages, Viktor Heifetz, professor at St. Petersburg State University and leading researcher at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Latin American Studies, said.

For example, the UAE is a regional financial hub, while Egypt offers logistics advantages via the Suez Canal and serves as a bridge between the Arab world and Africa. “They have different interests. Argentina needs loans, investments, it is interested in switching to payments in national currencies. The rest aspire to cooperate in the field of energy and build new logistics chains,” the expert told Vedomosti.

The inclusion of new groups of countries in BRICS resulted from a compromise in talks between specific leaders, Fyodor Lukyanov, editor-in-chief of Russia in Global Affairs magazine, thinks.

According to the expert, previously the organization had faced a choice between making a quantitative expansion or a qualitative reinforcement. “In the end, the forum’s participants chose the first option. This path, if it doesn’t block the second option, it substantially complicates it. Nevertheless, BRICS will gradually begin to transform into a different organization,” the expert said in a conversation with Vedomosti, adding that they will have to do so because they cannot stop at only six randomly selected countries.

In a conversation with Nezavisimaya Gazeta, Alexander Lukin, research director of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of China and Contemporary Asia, noted: “It is incorrect to speak of some unsurmountable differences of opinion between the BRICS members. All members of the union will support a larger role for non-Western countries in the system of global governance. There are no differences of opinion among them on this issue. Russia will assume the chairmanship [for the next year] but this is a rotating, technical role. It won’t give [Moscow] any advantages. The more so as regards Ukraine, which is not part of BRICS and has nothing to do with it.”

Vasily Kashin, director of the Center for Comprehensive European and International Studies at the Higher School of Economics (HSE University), told Nezavisimaya Gazeta that the countries that were admitted to BRICS were precisely those that the majority of members were interested in seeing in the organization. He also pointed out that the peace initiatives on Ukraine put forward by China and a group of African countries may bear fruit in the future if the situation on the battlefield changes. With reports from TASS.