BRICS

"Brics" redirects here. For the place, see Brics (municipality). For other uses, see Bric (disambiguation).

BRICS

Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa
The BRICS leaders in 2023, from left to right: Lula da Silva, Xi Jinping, Cyril Ramaphosa, Narendra Modi and Sergey Lavrov (representing Putin).
Member states shown in Dark Blue
Member states shown in Dark Blue, Countries to join in 2024 in Teal, Applicants shown in Cyan, countries which express their interest to join shown in light cyan Member states and key leaders: Brazil President Lula da Silva Russia President Vladimir Putin India Prime Minister Narendra Modi China President Xi Jinping South Africa (2023 host) President Cyril Ramaphosa
Abbreviation	BRICS
Named after	Member states' initials (in English)
Predecessor	BRIC
Formation	September 2006 (September 2006) (UNGA 61st session) 1st BRIC summit: 16 June 2009 (16 June 2009)
Founder	UNGA 61st session: Celso Amorim Sergey Lavrov Manmohan Singh Li Zhaoxing Vladimir Putin Hu Jintao 1st BRIC summit: Lula da Silva Dmitry Medvedev Manmohan Singh Hu Jintao
Founded at	UN HQ, NYC (UNGA 61st session) Yekaterinburg (1st BRIC summit)
Type	Intergovernmental organization
Purpose	Political and economical
Fields	International politics
Membership (2022)	5
Website	https://brics2023.gov.za/
Formerly called	BRIC

BRICS is a grouping of the world economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa formed by the 2010 addition of South Africa to the predecessor BRIC. The original acronym "BRIC", or "the BRICs", was coined in 2001 by Goldman Sachs economist Jim O'Neill to describe fast-growing economies that 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. All five states are members of the G20, with a combined nominal GDP of US$28.06 trillion (about 26.6% of the gross world product), a total GDP (PPP) of around US$56.65 trillion (32.5% of global GDP PPP), and an estimated US$4.46 trillion in combined foreign reserves (as of 2018).

The BRICS were originally identified for the purpose of highlighting investment opportunities and had not been a formal intergovernmental organization. Since 2009, they have increasingly formed into a more cohesive geopolitical bloc, with their governments meeting annually at formal summits and coordinating multilateral policies. Bilateral relations among BRICS are conducted mainly on the basis of non-interference, equality, and mutual benefit.

In August 2023, at the 15th BRICS Summit, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates have been invited to join the bloc. Full membership will take effect on January 1, 2024.

BRICS have received both praise and criticism from numerous commentators.

History

The BRICS

The term BRIC was originally developed in the context of foreign investment strategies. It was introduced in the 2001 publication, Building Better Global Economic BRICs by then-chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Jim O'Neill; the term was coined by Roopa Purushothaman, who was a research assistant in the original report.

For investing purposes, the list of emerging economies sometimes included South Africa, which expanded the acronym to BRICS or BRICK.

The foreign ministers of the initial four BRIC General states (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) met in New York City in September 2006 at the margins of the General Debate of the UN Assembly, beginning a series of high-level meetings. A full-scale diplomatic meeting was held in Yekaterinburg, Russia, on 16 June 2009.

The BRIC grouping's 1st formal summit, also held in Yekaterinburg, commenced on 16 June 2009, with Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Dmitry Medvedev, Manmohan Singh, and Hu Jintao, the respective leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, and China, all attending. The summit's focus was on improving the global economic situation and reforming financial institutions, and discussed how the four countries could better co-operate in the future. There was further discussion of ways that developing countries, such as 3/4 of the BRIC members, could become more involved in global affairs.

In the aftermath of the Yekaterinburg summit, the BRIC nations announced the need for a new global reserve currency, which would have to be "diverse, stable and predictable." Although the statement that was released did not directly criticize the perceived "dominance" of the US dollar – something that Russia had criticized in the past – it did spark a fall in the value of the dollar against other major currencies.

Entry of South Africa

In 2010, South Africa began efforts to join the BRIC grouping, and the process for its formal admission began in August of that year. South Africa officially became a member nation on 24 December 2010, after being formally invited by China to join and subsequently accepted by other BRIC countries. The group was renamed BRICS – with the "S" standing for South Africa – to reflect the group's expanded membership. In April 2011, the President of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, attended the 2011 BRICS summit in Sanya, China, as a full member.

Potential further expansion

Since South Africa joined the BRIC grouping (now BRICS) in 2010, numerous other countries have expressed interest in joining the bloc, including Argentina and Iran. Both signaled their intent to join BRICS during meetings with senior Chinese officials, the current BRICS chair, over the course of the summer of 2022. Beijing backed Argentina's potential accession following a meeting between Argentine Foreign Minister Santiago Cafiero and Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the margins of the G20 Summit in Indonesia. China once again reiterated support for Argentina's potential application during a subsequent meeting between Cafiero and Yi on the margins of the 77th UN General Assembly. Likewise, it is understood that Russia, India, and Brazil all support Argentina's application. Iran also submitted an application in June 2022 to Chinese authorities to join the economic association of emerging markets. Relations between Iran, China and Russia have warmed in recent months as all three governments seek new allies against increasing Western opposition. There is no formal application process as such to join BRICS, but any hopeful government must receive unanimous backing from all existing BRICS members—Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa—to receive an invitation.

Ahead of the BRICS summit, South Africa's Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor said that there are 12 countries interested in joining the initiative. Of the 12, she mentioned 7 countries specifically, namely Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Algeria, Argentina, Mexico and Nigeria. On June 14, 2023 Russia’s ambassador to Egypt announced that Egypt had applied to join BRICS.

Pandor also said that membership discussions will be dealt with at the upcoming summit. In spite of South Africa's membership, British politician Jim O'Neill said that new members should have populations of at least 100 million in order to counter the US dollar's dominance.

Developments

Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro and Russian president Vladimir Putin during the BRICS in Brasília, Brazil.

The BRICS Forum, an independent international organization encouraging commercial, political, and cultural cooperation among the BRICS nations, was formed in 2011. In June 2012, the BRICS nations pledged $75 billion to boost the lending power of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). However, this loan was conditional on IMF voting reforms. In late March 2013, during the fifth BRICS summit in Durban, South Africa, the member countries agreed to create a global financial institution intended to cooperate with the western-dominated IMF and World Bank. After the summit, the BRICS stated that they planned to finalize the arrangements for this New Development Bank by 2014. However, disputes relating to burden sharing and location slowed down the agreements.

At the BRICS leaders meeting in St Petersburg in September 2013, China committed $41 billion towards the pool; Brazil, India, and Russia $18 billion each; and South Africa $5 billion. China, who holds the world's largest foreign exchange reserves and contributes the bulk of the currency pool, wants a more significant managing role, said one BRICS official. China also wants to be the location of the reserve. "Brazil and India want the initial capital to be shared equally. We know that China wants more," said a Brazilian official. "However, we are still negotiating, there are no tensions arising yet." On 11 October 2013, Russia's Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said that creating a $100 billion in funds designated to steady currency markets would be taken in early 2014. The Brazilian finance minister, Guido Mantega, stated that the fund would be created by March 2014. However, by April 2014, the currency reserve pool and development bank had yet to be set up, and the date was rescheduled to 2015. One driver for the BRICS development bank is that the existing institutions primarily benefit extra-BRICS corporations, and the political significance is notable because it allows BRICS member states "to promote their interests abroad... and can highlight the strengthening positions of countries whose opinion is frequently ignored by their developed American and European colleagues."

In March 2014, at a meeting on the margins of the Nuclear Security Summit in The Hague, the BRICS Foreign Ministers issued a communique that "noted with concern, the recent media statement on the forthcoming G20 Summit to be held in Brisbane in November 2014. The custodianship of the G20 belongs to all Member States equally, and no one Member State can unilaterally determine its nature and character." In light of the tensions surrounding the annexation of Ukrainian Crimea by Russia, the Ministers remarked that "The escalation of hostile language, sanctions and counter-sanctions, and force does not contribute to a sustainable and peaceful solution, according to international law, including the principles and purposes of the United Nations Charter." This was in response to the statement of the then Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, who had said earlier that Russian President Vladimir Putin might be barred from attending the G20 Summit in Brisbane.

BRICS Tower headquarters in Shanghai

Over the weekend of 13 July 2014, when the final game of the FIFA World Cup was held, and in advance of the BRICS Fortaleza summit, Putin met fellow leader Dilma Rousseff to discuss the BRICS development bank, and sign some other bilateral accords on air defense, gas and education. Rousseff said that the BRICS countries "are among the largest in the world and cannot content themselves in the middle of the 21st century with any kind of dependency." The Fortaleza summit was followed by a BRICS meeting with the Union of South American Nations presidents in Brasilia, where the development bank and the monetary fund were introduced. The development bank will have capital of US$50 billion with each country contributing US$10 billion, while the monetary fund will have US$100 billion at its disposal.

On 15 July, the first day of the BRICS sixth summit in Fortaleza, Brazil, the group of emerging economies signed the long-anticipated document to create the US$100 billion New Development Bank (formerly known as the "BRICS Development Bank") and a reserve currency pool worth over another US$100 billion. Documents on cooperation between BRICS export credit agencies and an agreement of cooperation on innovation were also inked.

At the end of October 2014, Brazil trimmed down its holdings of US government securities to US$261.7 billion; India, US$77.5 billion; China, US$1.25 trillion; South Africa, US$10.3 billion.

In March 2015, Morgan Stanley stated that India and Indonesia had escaped from the 'fragile five' (the five major emerging markets with the most fragile currencies) by instituting economic reforms. Previously, in August 2013, Morgan Stanley rated India and Indonesia, together with Brazil, Turkey, and South Africa, as the 'fragile five' due to their vulnerable currencies. But since then, India and Indonesia have reformed their economies, completing 85% and 65% of the necessary adjustments respectively, while Brazil had only achieved 15%, Turkey only 10%, and South Africa even less.

New Development Bank's logo.

After the 2015 summit, the respective communications ministers, under a Russian proposal, had a first summit for their ministries in Moscow in October where the host minister, Nikolai Nikiforov, proposed an initiative to further tighten their information technology sectors and challenge the monopoly of the United States in the sector.

Since 2012, the BRICS group of countries have been planning an optical fibre submarine communications cable system to carry telecommunications between the BRICS countries, known as the BRICS Cable. Part of the motivation for the project was the spying of the U.S. National Security Agency on all telecommunications that flowed in and out of United States territory. As of 2023, construction of the proposed cable network has not started.

In August 2019, the communications ministers of the BRICS countries signed a letter of intent to cooperate in the Information and Communication Technology sector. This agreement was signed in the fifth edition of meeting of communication ministers of countries member of the group held in Brasília, Brazil.

Meeting of BRICS foreign ministers on 22 September 2022

The New Development Bank, located in China, plans on giving out $15 billion to member nation to help their struggling economies. Member countries are hoping for a smooth comeback and a continuation of economic trade pre-COVID-19. The 2020 BRICS summit was held virtually in St. Petersburg, Russia and discussed how to handle the COVID-19 pandemic and how to fix the multilateral system via reforms. The COVID-19 vaccine uptake rate was mixed among the BRICS community, with the populations of China, India, and South Africa most willing to take the vaccine and the populations of Brazil and Russia less willing. During the 13th BRICS summit, in 2021, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for a transparent investigation into the origins of COVID-19 under the World Health Organization with the full cooperation of "all countries", and Chinese leader Xi Jinping spoke directly afterwards, calling on BRICS countries to "oppose politicisation" of the process.

Since 2011, the National Institutes of Statistics of the BRICS group of countries (IBGE, Rosstat, the National Bureau of Statistics of China, the Central Statistics Office (India) and Statistics South Africa) produce an annual joint statistical publication in order to put statistical production in perspective, compare adopted methodologies and statistical results. The publication serves as single data platform for the mutual benefit of participating countries.

In May 2023, South Africa announced that they would be giving diplomatic immunity to Vladimir Putin and other Russian officials so that they could attend the 15th BRICS Summit despite the ICC arrest warrant for Putin.

In July 2023, the Russian president announced that he will not personally attend the BRICS summit in Johannesburg on August 22-24 despite good relations with the South African nation. Russian news channels noted that Putin will remotely participate online in all BRICS leaders’ sessions, including its Business Forum, and also deliver his remarks virtually.

2024 expansion

In August 2023, at the 15th BRICS Summit, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that 6 emerging market group countries of Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates have been invited to join the bloc. Full membership will take effect on January 1, 2024.

Summits

The grouping has held annual summits since 2009, with member countries taking turns to host. Prior to South Africa's admission, two BRIC summits were held, in 2009 and 2010. The first five-member BRICS summit was held in 2011. The most recent BRICS leaders' summit took place virtually on 23 June 2022 hosted by China. India has hosted the BRICS 2021 summit at New Delhi & amid tensions with China, Chinese leader Xi Jinping had made a soft move by supporting India's Chairmanship in 2021.

Sr. No.	Date(s)	Host country	Host leader	Location	Notes
1st	16 June 2009	Russia	Dmitry Medvedev	Yekaterinburg (Sevastianov's House)	The summit was to discuss the global recession taking place at the time, future cooperation among states, and trade. Some of the specific topics discussed were food, trade, climate trade, and security for the nations. They called out for a more influential voice and representation for up-and-coming markets. Note at the time South Africa was not yet admitted to the BRICS organization at the time.
2nd	15 April 2010	Brazil	Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva	Brasília (Itamaraty Palace)	Guests: Jacob Zuma (President of South Africa) and Riyad al-Maliki (Foreign Minister of the Palestinian National Authority). The second summit continued on the conversation of the global recession and how to recover. They had a conversation on the IMF, climate change, and more ways to form cooperation among states.
3rd	14 April 2011	China	Hu Jintao	Sanya (Sheraton Sanya Resort)	First summit to include South Africa alongside the original BRIC countries. The third summit had nations debating on the global and internal economies of countries.
4th	29 March 2012	India	Manmohan Singh	New Delhi (Taj Mahal Hotel)	The BRICS Cable announced an optical fibre submarine communications cable system that carries telecommunications between the BRICS countries. The fourth summit discussed how the organization could prosper from the global recession and how they could take advantage of that to help their economies. BRICS had the intention of improving their global power and providing adequate development for their state.
5th	26–27 March 2013	South Africa	Jacob Zuma	Durban (Durban ICC)	The fifth summit discusses the New Development Bank proposition and Contingent Reserve Agreement. BRICS also announced the Business Council and its Think Tank Council.
6th	14–17 July 2014	Brazil	Dilma Rousseff	Fortaleza (Centro de Eventos do Ceará)	BRICS New Development Bank and BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement agreements signed. Guest: Leaders of Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) The members of BRICS conversed with each other about political coordination, development, and economic growth. They established the Fortaleza Declaration and Action Plan.
7th	8–9 July 2015	Russia	Vladimir Putin	Ufa (Congress Hall)	Joint summit with SCO-EAEU. The seventh summit discussed global, economic problems, and better ways to foster cooperation among member states.
8th	15–16 October 2016	India	Narendra Modi	Benaulim (Taj Exotica)	Joint summit with BIMSTEC. The eighth BRICS summit debated on topics like counter-terrorism, economies, and climate change. BRICS also issued the Goa Declaration and Action Plan, hoping to harden their relationships.
9th	3–5 September 2017	China	Xi Jinping	Xiamen (Xiamen International Conference Center)	Joint summit with EMDCD. The ninth summit was an event that talked about a bright future for BRICS and what their goals intend to be. They still covered and debated international and regional issues with one another; hopeful to keep moving forward.
10th	25–27 July 2018	South Africa	Cyril Ramaphosa	Johannesburg (Sandton Convention Centre)	The tenth summit had the members discuss their rising industries. Hoping they can cut a bigger slice of the industry market.
11th	13–14 November 2019	Brazil	Jair Bolsonaro	Brasília (Itamaraty Palace)	The eleventh summit discussed advancements in the BRICS's science and innovation fields. Primarily trying to advance technology and digital currency. They made mutual agreements to help stop drug trafficking and organized crime; both internationally and internally
12th	21–23 July 2020 (postponed due to COVID-19 pandemic) 17 November 2020 (video conference)	Russia	Vladimir Putin	Saint Petersburg	Joint summit with SCO. Discussing a mutual agreement on helping BRICS member countries to help foster better living standards and quality of life for each country's people. Plans on focusing on peace, economies, and cultural societal issues.
13th	9 September 2021 (video conference)	India	Narendra Modi	New Delhi	BRICS Games 2021
14th	23 June 2022 (video conference)	China	Xi Jinping	Beijing	A major development on the summit was creation of a new, basket type reserve currency. The currency, which is challenging US dollar, combines BRICS currencies and is backed by precious metals.
15th	22-24 August 2023	South Africa	Cyril Ramaphosa	Johannesburg (Sandton Convention Centre)

BRICS countries

Country	Population (millions) (2023)	Total GDP		GDP per capita		GDP growth (2023 est.)	Foreign Exchange Reserves (2023)	HFCE (2018)	Government spending	Exports	Imports	Literacy rate	Life expectancy (years, avg.)	HDI (2023)
		Nominal (bil. USD) (2022 est.)	PPP bln. ID (2023 est.)	Nominal USD (2023 est.)	PPP ID (2022 est.)
Brazil	207.57	1,924	4,020	9,673	18,686	1.6%	$355.6 bn	$1194670 bln	$846.6 bn	$487.05 bn	$158.93 bn	94.30%	77.21 yrs	0.754 (high)
Russia	150.96	2,215	4,649	14,403	31,967	0.7%	$600.9 bn	$856329 bln	$414.0 bn	$492.31 bn	$231.55 bn	99.7%	72.9 yrs	0.822 (very high)
India	1425.09	3,386	11,665	2,601	8,293	5.9%	$633.9 bn	$1729560 bln	$650.0 bn	$750.89 bn	$598.20 bn	79.1%	71.4 yrs	0.633 (medium)
China	1415.04	18,100	30,074	13,721	21,291	5.2%	$3480.2 bn	$5352545 bln	$2,031.0 bn	$3,026.0 bn	$2,055.0 bn	96.4%	77.4 yrs	0.768 (high)
South Africa	57.40	435.5	990	6,485	15,556	0.1%	$53.8 bn	$211693 bln	$95.27 bn	$123.73 bn	$68.97 bn	94.3%	64.8 yrs	0.713 (high)
Average	627.06	3,753.7	8,119.9	8,941	19,041	3.5%	$987.0 bn	$1868956 bln	$800.574 bn	$970.19 bn	$711.86 bn	93%	73.4 yrs	0.739 (high)
Total	3245.36	26,060	51,171	–	–	–	$5124.4 bn	$9344797 bln	$4,036.87 bn	$4,879.98 bn	$3,112.65 bn	–	–	–

Bangladesh, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Uruguay are members of BRICS New Development Bank.

Proposals

Discussions about the expansion and entry of new member countries were little addressed until the early 2020s, after this date, leaders and top ranking diplomats of the founding nations began discussions for the expansion of the group.

In 2023 Iranians applied for membership but Indian prime minister denied Iranian government because it's target of international sanctions.

Financial architecture

The New Development Bank (NDB) is based in Shanghai.

The New Development Bank (NDB) and Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA) were signed into treaty at the 2014 BRICS summit in Brazil.

Equal distribution of shares between the shareholders of the NDB.

Currently, there are two components that make up the financial architecture of BRICS, namely, the New Development Bank (NDB), or sometimes referred to as the BRICS Development Bank, and the Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA). Both of these components were signed into treaty in 2014 and became active in 2015.

New Development Bank

Further information: New Development Bank

The New Development Bank (NDB), formally referred to as the BRICS Development Bank, is a multilateral development bank operated by the five BRICS states. The bank's primary focus of lending will be infrastructure projects with authorized lending of up to $34 billion annually. South Africa will be the African Headquarters of the Bank named the "New Development Bank Africa Regional Centre." The bank will have starting capital of $50 billion, with wealth increased to $100 billion over time. Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa will initially contribute $10 billion each to bring the total to $50 billion. It has so far 53 projects under way worth around $15 billion.

Recently Bangladesh, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Uruguay were added as new members of BRICS New Development Bank (NDB).

BRICS CRA

Further information: BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement

The BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA) is a framework for providing protection against global liquidity pressures. This includes currency issues where members' national currencies are being adversely affected by global financial pressures. It is found that emerging economies that experienced rapid economic liberalization went through increased economic volatility, bringing an uncertain macroeconomic environment. The CRA is generally seen as a competitor to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and along with the New Development Bank is viewed as an example of increasing South-South cooperation. It was established in 2015 by the BRICS countries. The legal basis is formed by the Treaty for the Establishment of a BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement, signed at Fortaleza, Brazil on 15 July 2014. With its inaugural meetings of the BRICS CRA Governing Council and Standing Committee, held on 4 September 2015, in Ankara, Turkey it entered into force upon ratification by all BRICS states, announced at the 7th BRICS summit in July 2015.

BRICS payment system

At the 2015 BRICS summit in the Russian Federation, ministers from BRICS nations initiated consultations for a payment system that would be an alternative to the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) system. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov stated in an interview, "The finance ministers and executives of the BRICS central banks are negotiating ... setting up payment systems and moving on to settlements in national currencies. SWIFT or not, in any case we’re talking about ... a global multilateral payment system that would provide greater independence, would create a definite guarantee for BRICS."

The Central Bank of Russia (CBR) also started consultations with BRICS nations for a payment system that would be an alternative to the SWIFT system. The main benefits highlighted were backup and redundancy in case there were disruptions to the SWIFT system. The Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Russia, Olga Skorobogatova, stated in an interview, "The only topic that may be of interest to all of us within BRICS is to consider and talk over the possibility of setting up a system that would apply to the BRICS countries, used as a backup."

China has also launched the development of their own SWIFT-alternative payment-system, the Cross-Border Inter-Bank Payments System (CIPS), which would enable financial institutions worldwide to send and receive information about financial transactions in a secure, standardized, and reliable environment. India also has its alternative Structured Financial Messaging System (SFMS), as do Russia System for Transfer of Financial Messages (SPFS) and Brazil (Pix).

Potential common currency

BRICS countries will likely discuss the feasibility of a new common currency or similar at the 2023 BRICS summit in South Africa. Fair and easier international trade as well as a major reduction in costs of transactions would be some of the reasons why the countries could forge a currency union, according to Mikatekiso Kubayi, a BRICS specialist. Former White House senior advisor Joseph W. Sullivan, writing for American magazine Foreign Policy, asserted that "a BRICS-issued currency would be different", as it would be comprised by challengers to the Western-led international that "in the order the scale of GDP, now collectively outweigh not only the reigning hegemon, the United States, but the entire G-7 weight class put together." Sullivan maintains that the BRICS would also be poised to achieve a level of self-sufficiency in international trade that has eluded other currency unions, such as the Eurozone, because of the geographic diversity of its members, which enables a broader range of goods and services.

Reception

The five leaders of BRICS in Brasília, Brazil, in 2019.

Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro welcoming the BRICS leaders.

In 2012, Hu Jintao, the then General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and President of China, described the BRICS countries as defenders and promoters of developing countries and a force for world peace. Western analysts have highlighted potential divisions and weaknesses in the grouping, including significant economic instabilities, disagreements among the members over the UN Security Council reform, and India and China's disputes over territorial issues.

On 9 April 2013, Isobel Coleman from the Council on Foreign Relations, director of CFR's Civil Society, Markets, and Democracy Program claimed that members of BRICS share a lack of consensus. They uphold drastically different political systems, from a vibrant democracy in Brazil to entrenched oligarchy in Russia, and their economies are little integrated and are different in size by orders of magnitude. She also claimed that the significant difference in GDP influences the reserves. China taking up over 41% of the contribution, which in turn leads to bigger political say within the association.

Vijay Prashad, author and the Edward Said Chair at the American University of Beirut, 2014 raised the BRICS limitations as a political and economic "locomotive of the South" because they follow neoliberal policies. They have established neither new counter-balancing institutions nor come up with an alternative ideology. Furthermore, the BRICS project, argues Prashad, has no ability to challenge the primacy of the United States and NATO.

BRICS Pro Tempore Presidency

The group at each summit elects one of the heads of state of the component countries to serve as President Pro Tempore of the BRICS. In 2019, the pro tempore presidency was held by the president of Brazil.

The theme of the 11th BRICS summit was "BRICS: economic growth for an innovative future", and the priorities of the Brazilian Pro Tempore Presidency for 2019 are the following – Strengthening of the cooperation in Science, technology and innovation; Enhancement of the cooperation on digital economy; Invigoration of the cooperation on the fight against transnational crime, especially against organized crime, money laundering and drug trafficking; Encouragement to the rapprochement between the New Development Bank (NDB) and the BRICS Business Council. Currently the new President Pro Tempore is Russia and their goals are: investing into BRICS countries in order to strengthen everyone's economies, cooperating in the energy and environmental industries, helping with young children and coming up with resolutions on migration and peacekeeping.

See also

• BRICS Games
• Emerging and growth-leading economies
• Emerging power
• List of BRICS summit attendees
• List of country groupings
• List of multilateral free-trade agreements
• MIKTA
• Potential superpowers
• Shanghai Cooperation Organisation

External links

• https://brics2021.gov.in/