Photo: AFP/Valery Sharifulin
Gábor Stier
20/09/2024 06:00
More and more allies of the Western bloc are strengthening the BRICS, the so-called bastion of the Global South. India and Saudi Arabia are already members, and Türkiye has recently announced its intention to join, while Thailand has already applied to join. But other countries that could step out of America's shadow and knock on the door of the premier forum for countries critical of the Western-dominated international order include Algeria, Bangladesh, Belarus, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Cuba, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Venezuela and Vietnam. So far, more than 40 countries have expressed their interest in joining BRICS, and some two dozen of them have already formally applied to join.
The forum, which was established in 2006 at Moscow's initiative and includes Brazil, India and China in addition to Russia, was expanded to include South Africa in 2010 and will become the "voice" of the so-called non-Western world on 1 January 2024 with the accession of Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The growing weight and prestige of the BRICS is underpinned by the fact that these ten countries account for nearly half of the world's population, with a combined share of the world economy of 58.9 billion dollars, or 35.6 per cent of global GDP in purchasing power parity.
The BRICS are not bound together by ideology, but by realism, the pursuit of national interests, the desire to catch up with the rich countries and, above all, to counter the global hegemony of the West, led by the United States. In the spirit of this pragmatism, the BRICS are not competing with anyone, they want to distance themselves from a new Cold War, and China does not want to take the place of the United States.
It is in this spirit that the Russian presidency this year has placed the construction of a fair world order and the strengthening of multilateralism at the heart of its activities. As Vladimir Putin said, the October summit in Kazan will show that fewer and fewer countries in the world want to live according to the "rules-based order" imposed by the United States. Rather, they want to act in their own interests and those of their partners, creating favourable conditions for effective common development.
Moscow sees one of its main tasks in 2024 as promoting the harmonious integration of the new members and continuing enlargement. In this spirit, the institution of partnership will be established in a gradual and progressive manner.
The author is a journalist and founding editor-in-chief of Moszkvater.com