The trendiest hedging wager available to a country in the Global South now is BRICS. Its popularity stems from the fact that it is protected by multilateralism and asserts that it provides answers to pressing issues.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is in Russia this week as Russian President Vladimir Putin hosts the sixteenth BRICS Summit in the town of Kazan. This is a primary confluence of countries and the complete world is looking at it with bated breath, given its increasing geopolitical footprint, its comparisons with the G7, and its three giants Russia, India, and China. But there are conflicting methods to become aware of this team and that leads to the question: is BRICS simply a fragmented dysfunctional grouping or a danger to the US-led international order? Going through the nature of the group, it is achievable to steer each way.
For starters, the BRICS has 9 member international locations and this is the first summit given its growth this year. The UAE, Egypt, Ethiopia, and Iran are its most up-to-date contributors different than South Africa, and its founding contributors are Russia, India, China, and Brazil. Hosted with the aid of Russia, and with countless heads of nation attending together with India’s PM Modi, this marks a predominant comeback for Putin on the world stage because of the Ukraine war.
For a rapid background, the BRICS started in 2009 as BRIC with its founding contributors Brazil, Russia, India, and China. The acronym BRIC was once coined with the aid of Goldman Sachs economist Jim O’Neill. He expected that these 4 unexpectedly developing, rising economies would finally come to task with the financial heft of the G7. The notion used to be created in 2001, at the beginning with overseas funding techniques in mind. By 2009, a full-scale summit took region in the Russian metropolis of Yekaterinburg. It was once attended by former Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Russia’s Dmitry Medvedev, Brazil’s Luis Inacio Da Silva, and China’s Hu Jintao. In 2010, South Africa joined in, main to the title BRICS as we are aware of it now. Today, this grouping which as soon as commenced with a center of attention on financial cooperation has emerged as a doubtlessly consequential geopolitical bloc.
Despite Western skepticism, its reputation has been on the rise, mainly due to the addition of 4 new participants in 2024 Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates. Together, the BRICS international locations structure a big world footprint. They account for forty-five percent of the world’s population, 30 percent of the world’s landmass, and 37.4 percent of international GDP in contrast to the G7’s 29.3 percent. Moreover, BRICS debts for 25 percent of world exchange and nearly 45 percent of international oil reserves. Now that’s a bold pool of resources, markets, and financial potential. It has to be stated that Argentina’s entry used to be additionally introduced in 2023, however, it pulled away beneath its new leadership, which sought to enhance family members with the United States. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia has been invited however is yet to be accepted.
This brings us to the necessary bit about this group. The BRICS has emerged as a vast counter to Western monetary hegemony. It is considered as a risk to the US-led world order and primarily, the supremacy of the US dollar. Russia, specifically in the context of extreme Western sanctions when you consider the Ukraine war, hopes to construct establishments and structures that counter the dollar’s hegemony and pave the way for a new world reserve currency. Iran, some other kingdom at the receiving cease of the US monetary sanctions, is in help of such de-dollarisation.
Putin hopes to push for larger geopolitical and ideological alignment, in fact portraying it as an anti-Western bloc. One of Russia’s largest dreams is to push for a frequent BRICS currency, however, Putin lately stated that the time for it has no longer come yet. Currently, most contributors of the team are greatly fascinated by the use of every other’s currencies as nicely as digital currencies for mutual trade. Putin has additionally proposed the introduction of a BRICS ranking company to push mutual investments and supply a choice to the SWIFT repayments system, which nations like Russia and Iran have been shunned via the dominant West.
It is additionally vital to be aware that whilst the BRICS can also appear to be an inherently anti-Western bloc due to the fact of the presence of Russia and China, it is additionally fragmented in phrases of viewpoints, from financial cooperation to ideological. While Russia, China, and Iran may additionally be greater intently aligned on anti-Western rhetoric, gamers like India, the UAE, and Egypt have functioning relationships with each aspect with enormous exchange relations. In the context of our nation, the BRICS serves India’s strategic autonomy well. As per the phrases of External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, the BRICS is non-Western, now not anti-Western. India additionally performs a sizeable balancing position in the lopsided group, owing to China’s outright dominance in phrases of financial heft.
Now, skeptics assert that the BRICS is doomed to be dysfunctional owing to its wide-ranging views and lack of consensus. However, this has no longer taken away from its appeal. More than 30 different countries are phase of the summit this time and have both requested to be a part of the team or expressed activity in doing so. This is because BRICS has ended up a simple reality, especially with the decline of American hegemony and the upward jostle of China. The presence of India similarly enhances the appeal, given the instance it has set for the Global South.
Most international locations want to hedge in opposition to the West by way of being in the BRICS, balancing family members with each side, and maintaining their choices open. Further attraction comes from the hunt for counters to Western sanctions and selections to Western-dominated monetary institutions. BRICS’ New Development Bank or the NDB is rising as a large associate for creating nations. As of the modern-day reachable data, the NDB has accredited $32.8 billion in financing for ninety-six tasks in BRICS countries.
BRICS is, therefore, right here to stay. It is the most elegant hedging wager a Global South kingdom can make in this day and age in the face of Western hegemony. It has the protections of multilateralism imparting stability of strength barring outright Chinese or Russian dominance. It claims to have options for real-world issues that may additionally eventually have a stable effect on the international financial system.
