Significance of the recently concluded BRICS Summit – Aug 22, 2023 – Aug 24, 2023

By Joel Wong

From the latest column by Joel Wong:

“While the US mainstream media is inundated with coverage of Donald Trump’s indictment in Georgia, the rest of the world is awashed with news of what came out of the BRICS Summit (August 22 -24, 2023) in Johannesburg, South America. Up to 40 countries have applied to join BRICS but only six were accepted. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates had been invited to join the bloc. Full membership will take effect on 1 January 2024.

BRICS is a grouping of the world economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa formed in 2010 . The original acronym “BRIC”, before South Africa joined, was coined in 2001 by Goldman Sachs economist Jim O’Neill to describe fast-growing economies that he predicted would collectively dominate the global economy by 2050. The BRICS have a combined area of 39,746,220 km2 (15,346,100 sq mi) and an estimated total population of about 3.21 billion, or about 26.7% of the world’s land surface and 41.5% of the global population. Brazil, Russia, India, and China are among the world’s ten largest countries by population, area, and GDP (PPP), and the latter three are widely considered to be current or emerging superpowers. With the newly added 6 countries, the BRICS countries represent over 47% of the world population (vs. < 7% of the G7), and their GDP in terms of purchasing power parity (ppp) have already eclipsed that of the G7. They will also control up to 82% of the world’s trade in petroleum, making them a formidable force in today’s energy resources. The BRICS are considered the foremost geopolitical rival to the G7 bloc of leading advanced economies, announcing competing initiatives such as the New Development Bank, the BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement, the BRICS payment system, the BRICS Joint Statistical Publication and the BRICS basket reserve currency. There are inherent conflicts of interests amongst the BRICS countries. For instance, there is rivalry between India and China and charter members India and Brazil are more pro-West than China and Russia. But, if they can hang together, it will give the G7 countries real competition, especially if they can develop a trading system to replace the petro-dollar! Whatever else may happen, our world has already turned multi-polar!"