BRICS is an acronym that refers to the developing economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. In 2022 the BRICS group surpassed the G7 of Western aligned nations in their share of contributions to world GDP. In August 2023, Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) formally were admitted to BRICS+. The BRICS+ or BRICS 11 group represents 36% of world GDP, 47% of the world's population, and control's 80% of the oil production on Earth. "Its founding members have called for a fairer world order and the reform of international institutions like the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank."
In September 2024, NATO-member Turkey applied to join the Russia-led BRICS, after years of frustration by Turkey in unsuccessfully seeking to join the European Union. Turkey's President "Erdogan, who has been in power for more than two decades, has sought to carve a more independent foreign policy for Turkey and to enhance its global influence."
Algeria, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Bahrain, Nigeria, Senegal, Thailand, Nicaragua, and Afghanistan have expressed interest in joining. Even the Vatican has sought membership as an observer.
BRICS leaders are aligned as anti-corporatist and anti-fascist, which simply means they want to make decisions themselves, and do not want multinational corporations to become more powerful than the government. The BRICS group are essentially the opposing element to the World Economic Forum. BRICS is working to devise measures to prevent the kind of predatory military assaults the U.S. carried out against Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Yemen and Afghanistan. The BRICS group is essentially a group of nations that do not want corporations and multinational banks running their government. BRICS countries want their government running their government, whatever form of government that exists in their nation, even if it is communist.
BRICS is not a free trade bloc, but members do coordinate on trade matters and have established a policy bank, the New Development Bank, (NDB) to coordinate infrastructure loans. That was set up in 2014 in order to provide alternative loan mechanisms from the IMF and World Bank structures, which the members had felt had become too US-centric. 132 nations had been calling on the United Nations for a new financial model, immediately saw hope in the BRICS alternative banking and financing initiatives which began to take shape in 2015. Within the first year, 57 countries formally joined the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), constituting the first total break from the Western Bretton Woods institutions which were felt to impose political reform policies designed to assist the United States in return for providing loans. There are many other non-members who enjoy limited banking privileges, including the UK, France, Germany, Italy, New Zealand and Australia. Both the NDB and AIIB banks are Triple A rated and capitalized at US$100 billion. The NDB bank shares are held equally by each of the five BRICS members.
While the Western nations de-industrialize and convert to so-called "green energy", the Global South, led by the BRICS+ nations will continue to grow using traditional coal and fossil fuels. De-industrialization and so-called "alternative energy sources" in the West has a negative impact on inflation, food and energy prices, and living standards. However living standards in the Global South and BRICS+ nations are expected to continue rising.
In 2022 BRICS outpaced the G7 in total GDP output. In total, the BRICS grouping as it currently stands accounts for over 40% of the global population and nearly a quarter of the world's GDP. The GDP figure is expected to double to 50% of global GDP by 2030.
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