SA wrapped up the three-day Brics summit on Thursday with the announcement that six countries, including ostracised Iran and African powerhouse Ethiopia, will become new members of the bloc, boosting its diversity and influence in global affairs.
Brazil, Russia, India, China and SA have invited Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to be full members of the bloc, President Cyril Ramaphosa said.
Addressing the media on the outcomes of the three-day summit at the Sandton Convention Centre, Ramaphosa, who chaired the summit, said the new memberships will take effect on January 1 2024.
The opening up of Brics, which accounts for almost half of the world’s population and whose economies make up a third of global GDP, paves the way for a formidable voice in global politics, with significant influence and the power to reshape global institutions and financial systems.
Still, the expansion may create more internal division and disagreement among the Brics countries on key issues such as trade, security, human rights and democracy. In just one example, India and China have a long-standing border dispute and compete for influence in Asia.
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva welcomed the new member countries, hailing the Brics bloc as the driving force towards a new international order to promote peace and multilateralism.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said: “India has always fully supported the expansion of Brics membership. The addition of new members will further strengthen Brics as an organisation and give our shared efforts a new impetus; this will also strengthen the multipolar world order.”
He said: “I’m confident that together we will infuse a new momentum and energy in our co-operation.
“For other countries that expressed a desire to join Brics, India will work towards a consensus for their inclusion.”
Brics is a consensus organisation, meaning all member states have to agree before any decision is ratified.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who addressed the briefing virtually, called on the new member states to “keep up with the work we have launched to expand Brics’ influence in the world”.
Responsibility
Chinese President Xi Jinping said: “Brics countries are all countries with important influence and [they] shoulder important responsibility for world development.”
He said the Brics leaders unanimously agreed to invite the new countries as full members.
“China congratulates these [new member] countries and highly appreciates the effort by SA and chair Ramaphosa. This membership expansion is historic; it shows the Brics countries’ determination for unity and co-operation for broader development with other countries.”
Xi said the Brics expansion is a new starting point for co-operation among member states: “It will bring new vigour and strengthen world peace and development. We are confident that as long as we work with common purpose, there is a lot that Brics can achieve.”
Modi said Brics members agreed on “guiding principles, standards, criteria and procedures for the expansion”.
Global South
Anil Sooklal, SA’s ambassador to the bloc, told Business Day on the sidelines of the summit: “We were very clear that countries must be from the Global South, good standing in their respective regions and thirdly they must add to the good standing of Brics.”
But he would not define what being in good standing means.
“So now we have to work on modalities of how we go about partner countries and make a determination on when a further expansion will be appropriate.”
More than 50 heads of state attended the summit and about 23 countries applied to join the bloc, underscoring what Brics leaders said is the attractiveness of the grouping among countries in the Global South.
Brics countries will strengthen banking networks to enable settlement in local currencies. A joint statement after the summit says the Brics countries have mandated finance ministers and central banks of the member states to consider the issue of trade in local currencies.
Sooklal played down the likelihood of discord among the Brics countries, which include democratic and authoritarian states as well as big and small economies, saying the trade bloc provides a platform to seek solidarity.
“The five of us are quite diverse on a number of fronts but despite this, we have continued to collaborate ... yes, there are differences but we are not bringing those into the Brics group, we are mature enough to bracket those,” he said.
He added that all the initial member states forwarded a list of countries which they would prefer to join Brics but before being admitted the member states had to reach consensus.
“SA put forward the name of Ethiopia and Egypt as part of pushing forward the African agenda ... Ethiopia has closer ties to SA compared to Egypt, which is often seen as a Middle Eastern country. Ethiopia was put forward by SA and there was little resistance from the other countries,” according to a source close to the talks.
Li Kexin, director-general of international economic affairs at the foreign ministry of China, said when considering the expansion, the initial member states did not want to establish rigid requirements for entry or for the channels of entry to be narrow.
When asked which country China sponsored to join the Brics bloc, Kexin said Beijing supported all countries and did not “cherry pick”.
Update: August 24 2023
This article has been updated with new information throughout.
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