The BRICS

As the world becomes increasingly multipolar, new formations promise to complicate international relations. 

One of those formations came into being in 2009, when Russia invited China, Brazil, and India to Yekaterinburg to create an organization composed of these four countries. In 2010, South Africa was invited, and the BRICS (using the first initial of each member state) came into being.

In 2014, the BRICs created the New Development Fund (now the New Development Bank) with US$50 billion in seed money as well as a liquidity mechanism called the Contingent Reserve Agreement to help members with payment problems. Brazil’s former President Dilma Rousseff was sworn in as its President last week.

While this organization does not really compete with the G-7 or other multilateral institutions, it has created a sense of solidarity among the five. It also appeals to other countries like Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Nigeria, Algeria, and Argentina who appear interested in joining.

Despite their different political and social systems, the five appear to be in sync on certain key issues. For example, none of the five are participating in sanctions against Russia, and all have been rather nuanced about the Russian invasion of Ukraine. 

"Diplomatically, the war in Ukraine appears to have drawn a stark dividing line between an eastern-backed Russia and the West," political scientist Matthew Bishop from the University of Sheffield wrote for the Economics Observatory late last year. "Consequently, some European and US policymakers worry that the BRICS may become less an economic club of rising powers seeking to influence global growth and development, and more a political one defined by their authoritarian nationalism."

Brazilian President Lula da Silva visited China last week and spent much of his public discourse parroting Russian lines on the invasion of Ukraine. He infuriated the Western supporters of Ukraine by saying that the US has encouraged the war by sending weapons to President Zelensky, parroting positions taken by China and Russia.

South Africa heads a list of African nations whose governments have shown a reluctance to join the US in criticizing and punishing Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. In March last year, when the US helped push through a UN resolution condemning Russia and calling for its withdrawal from Ukraine, South Africa and 33 other African nations abstained from the vote. At least five of the abstaining countries have contracted Russia’s paramilitary Wagner Group, and many others have long-standing weapons agreements with Russia.

Russia’s ties with many African states dovetail with China’s investments as part of its Belt and Road Initiative and underscores the reach of the BRICS’ clout. 

According to Energy Intelligence, Russia’s ability to leverage its financial and energy sectors — and its BRICS allies — to thwart Western sanctions has frustrated the US, Europe and the G7. India and China have emerged as the top buyers of Russian oil displaced from the West, China has indicated that it is prepared to increase imports of natural gas from Russia, and Brazil has said it is interested in investment from Russian gas giant Gazprom.

According to Akhil Ramesh, a fellow at the Honolulu-based Pacific Forum (quoted in GZERO), the BRICS could become an alternative to Western-led fora like the G7 or the G20.

"It's a question of geopolitics, how world events play out, but they're certainly working toward that," he explains. “What they're trying to do is make it less of a unilateral world".

Indeed, there are at least two reasons why the “BRICS-phenomenon” is interesting as an expression of the current state of international affairs. 

Firstly, the BRICS states embody an anti-Western sentiment that runs deep among most developing countries that have at different times in their histories fallen victim to colonialism. 

Second, the emergence of the BRICS seems to signal a transition to a post-western world and therefore feeds into anxieties about the decline of the West. 

Indeed, the survival of Russia against Western sanctions since the first invasion of Ukraine in 2014 underscores the thinking in many parts of the world that US hegemony is diminishing, and that the BRICS group offers a chance to cooperate what many see as emerging powers without breaking outright with the US. 

This plays into India’s hands perfectly since it still has border tensions with China and is a member of the US organized Quad that includes Australia, and Japan. This four-power group allows India to maintain some security arrangements with the West should things with China heat up.

BRICS unity may not be a sure thing until China and India work out their differences or agree to subsume them in the interests of strengthening their global organizational position.

But the West should be mindful about how the BRICS develops and attracts other members sharing the same ideological worldview. Clearly, a break from the past is emerging and strengthening Russia and China’s geopolitical position.

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Edition: Estefanía Cardeña