BRICS countries likely to induct five new members in August summit

Saudi Arabia's entry almost certain; Indonesia, UAE, Egypt also in the fray

The BRICS nations may agree to induct around five new members into the grouping during its August leadership summit, to be hosted by South Africa, culminating a long-pending expansion plan. Out of the 25 countries that are keen to join the grouping, while Saudi Arabia’s entry is almost certain, other frontrunners include Indonesia, the UAE, Egypt, and Argentina, a senior government official said on condition of anonymity.

The BRICS nations – Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa – currently represent over 42 per cent of the global population, 30 per cent of the world’s territory, 23 per cent of the global gross domestic product, and 18 per cent of trade.

“The expansion of BRICS is inevitable now. We will have to carefully manage that. There are 25 countries who want to be members of BRICS,” the official said.  

Asked how many countries may be added to the BRICS grouping, the official said another five should be fine. “The inclusion of Saudi Arabia is inevitable. The United Arab Emirates, Morocco, and Algeria are very keen, but they all may not fit in. Indonesia, Argentina, and Egypt are also good candidates,” he added.  

However, the official said there was unlikely to be any strong economic outcome this year. “The leadership summit may be virtual this time,” he said.  

The 15th BRICS Summit is scheduled for August 22-24 under the theme “BRICS and Africa: Partnership for Mutually Accelerated Growth, Sustainable Development and Inclusive Multilateralism”.  

Biswajit Dhar, professor of economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University, said while the BRICS countries currently seemed disconnected, the expansion would give it more legitimacy. “Geopolitical and economic landscape is changing quite rapidly because the Arab world is aligning with Russia and China. The expansion will lead to a significant kind of grouping within the grouping. This can have a lot of implications going forward. China’s position will get stronger,” he added.

South Africa has five priorities for the summit this year: developing a partnership towards an equitable just transition, transforming education and skills development for the future, unlocking opportunities through the African Continental Free Trade Area, strengthening post-pandemic socioeconomic recovery and the attainment of the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development, strengthening multilateralism, including working towards real reform of global governance institutions and strengthening the meaningful participation of women in peace processes.

The 2001 Goldman Sachs report popularised the acronym when discussing the return of BRIC countries as leaders of the global economy.

The leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, and China countries first met informally on the margins of the G8 Outreach Summit in St Petersburg, Russia, in July 2006, which later led to the formalisation of the grouping in the same year. The first BRIC summit was held in Russia in June 2009. South Africa was invited to join BRICS in 2010 and attended the third BRICS summit, held in Sanya, China, in 2011.