Page 32 - bne_May magazine 2023_20230503 BRICS

32 I Cover story bne May 2023
BRICS BLOC
Setting up the BRICS+ club bne IntelliNews
South Africa is hosting what could turn out to be a historic meeting of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia,
India, China, and South Africa) this August, where the leading emerging markets will invite new members to join an expanded "BRICS+" club that can challenge the established hegemony
of the leading developed countries
that have ruled the world since the industrial revolution three hundred years ago.
Nineteen countries have shown interest in joining the BRICS group of nations ahead of its annual summit in South Africa.
The meeting will be held in Cape Town on June 2-3, during which Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa will discuss the expansion of its membership, among other things.
Anil Sooklal, South Africa's ambassador to the group, said that "13 countries have formally asked to join and another six have asked informally. We are getting applications to join every day." China,
as the world's second-largest economy, proposed the expansion of the group when it was BRICS's chair last year.
Russia has been holding regular negotiations with its partners in
www.bne.eu
the BRICS group about possible expansion, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on April 27, following a decision
to work out appropriate guiding principles, standards, criteria and procedures set at the fourteenth BRICS summit in Beijing.
"The entire range of issues associated with this is being discussed at BRICS sherpa and sous-sherpa meetings, and, of course, this requires a thorough analysis and delicate internal work by the five countries to reach a consensus," the Russian diplomat said. Though the issue is being discussed on a regular basis, it is too early to reveal any details about the approval process, she added.
Growing family
In the middle of June 2009, the four fastest growing countries in the world came together for the inaugural BRIC summit. Leaders from Brazil, Russia, India and China met in the Russian
city of Yekaterinburg to create a formal organisation where they could pool their resources and co-ordinate their relations with the old world powers. The first formal meeting of the BRIC foreign ministers took place in Yekaterinburg in 2008, but this meeting was attended by presidents and prime ministers, and significantly upped the ante.
Originally coined as a marketing term by Goldman Sachs’ legendary head of research Jim O’Neill to sell stocks, the 2009 meeting marked the group’s first foray into politics as it attempted to create an organisation that had never existed before.
South Africa joined in December 2010, bringing Africa into the fold, although O’Neill says it is too small compared to the others to really qualify. However, from its inception the BRICS leaders began the process of integrating the countries around them into a loose trading and investment confederation, although for most of the last decade trade with the West has been far more important for the BRICS than trade with their neighbours.
Now what has been a loose club is changing and attempting to establish something with greater, and more co-ordinated, political heft. The war
in Ukraine has polarised the world,
as Western diplomats have been touring the world and attempting to persuade, cajole or threaten the EMs into supporting Western sanctions on Russia. As bne IntelliNews has reported, many countries continue to have deep economic, political and military ties with Russia and are not interested
in hurting these interests for what