The Oasis Reporters

August 23, 2023

By FP

Leaders and senior officials from five of the world’s top emerging economies convened in Johannesburg on Tuesday to kick off the three-day BRICS summit. The bloc—whose members are Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa—represents 40 percent of the world’s population and a quarter of its GDP.

Two key issues will frame much of the bloc’s discussions: expansion and economic growth. The five attendees are expected to discuss criteria needed to admit new countries into the bloc. Argentina, Belarus, Indonesia, Iran, Nigeria, and Saudi Arabia have all expressed interest in joining. BRICS hopes that by enlarging the group, it can create a counterweight to Western economic and geopolitical dominance, something that has become increasingly important to BRICS members as China’s rivalry with the United States intensifies and Russia’s war against Ukraine drags on.




But not everyone is on board with opening BRICS’s doors. Although Russia wants new allies to support its war effort, India and Brazil both fear that rushing into expansion could dilute the bloc’s influence globally.



Meanwhile, South Africa—the smallest economy of the group—wants to pivot expansion efforts toward other African nations. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa invited more than 30 African leaders to participate in BRICS meetings this week.




BRICS leaders also hope to create a framework at this week’s summit that will encourage the use of countries’ own local currencies for direct trade.





By shifting away from the U.S. dollar, BRICS aims to decrease dollar diplomacy and the strength that Western institutions, such as the International Monetary Fund, have on foreign affairs. At this time, though, South African officials said the creation of a common BRICS currency is not on the table.





Given the importance of these economic conversations, Chinese President Xi Jinping’s abrupt decision to skip a BRICS business forum on Tuesday, when he was scheduled to give a speech, raised eyebrows among China watchers.




The other four world leaders all gave speeches at the event—even Russian President Vladimir Putin, though his was delivered virtually, as he is not physically attending the summit due to the outstanding International Criminal Court warrant for his arrest.




Why Xi chose to play hooky from the event and send his commerce minister in his place is unclear—after all, Xi had just attended a lunch with Ramaphosa shortly before the forum—but it was certainly an odd way to kick off the summit.

Foreign Policy

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