JOHANNESBURG: Chinese President Xi Jinping advocated for unity among fellow BRICS leaders during a summit in South Africa on Wednesday, highlighting the need for an expanded grouping to address the challenges of a global “period of turbulence and transformation.”
The summit convened leaders of the leading developing nations comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. Discussions centered on establishing a framework for admitting new members to the bloc, with China’s call for expansion taking center stage.
The BRICS bloc, characterized by its diverse economies and foreign policy objectives, faces divisions over the extent and pace of its enlargement. While all member nations have expressed support for growth, differing views persist on the degree of expansion.
China, a significant player within the BRICS framework, has consistently championed expansion. Broader membership is seen as an avenue to bolster the grouping’s influence, which already represents around 40% of the world’s population and a quarter of global GDP.
China’s deteriorating relations with the United States and heightened global tensions stemming from the Ukraine conflict lend urgency to its expansion aspirations. President Xi highlighted the current shifts, divisions, and regrouping in the global landscape and stressed the importance of unity among BRICS nations.
Amid the varying economies and policies of the BRICS member states, decision-making is often complex. The disparity between China’s economic size, which exceeds South Africa’s – Africa’s most developed nation – by over 40 times, underscores the challenge of reaching unified decisions.
Chinese President Welcomes Developing Nations to Join BRICS
Addressing the summit in Johannesburg, President Xi expressed enthusiasm for developing nations’ interest in joining BRICS. He stated, “We should let more countries join the BRICS family to pool wisdom and efforts to make global governance more just and equitable.”
While South Africa announced more than 40 countries’ interest in joining BRICS, India and Brazil have expressed reservations about the expansion’s scope and pace. Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva cautioned against rivalry with the United States and G7 economies, emphasizing the need for careful selection to avoid a “Tower of Babel” scenario. Meanwhile, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered full support for expansion but underscored the importance of establishing ground rules for new members.
Russia, seeking to counterbalance Western isolation following its Ukraine invasion, is also advocating for swift BRICS expansion. Russian President Vladimir Putin, absent from the summit due to an international arrest warrant, used a video address to criticize Western powers and emphasize the desire to challenge their hegemony.
Beyond expansion considerations, the summit also delved into boosting the use of local currencies within member states for trade and financial transactions, reducing dependency on the US dollar. While a common BRICS currency was not discussed, potential new member countries, including Saudi Arabia, Algeria, and Argentina, are under consideration to join the New Development Bank.
