Rival to the G7: Russia, China invite rich Islamic nations to join BRICS

London: The BRICS group of countries has invited Saudi Arabia, Iran, Ethiopia, Egypt, Argentina and the United Arab Emirates to join the club, which China wants to operate as a rival to the G7.

BRICS currently comprises Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa; the latter hosted this year’s summit in Johannesburg. The proposed expansion would more than double the number of member states.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa (left) and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the last day of the BRICS Summit in Johannesburg.Credit: AP

The BRICS leaders said in their declaration at the end of the summit that the new members would be admitted from January 1.

The group wants to reduce its reliance on using the American dollar to settle global trade but has so far been incapable of producing a viable alternative.

China’s President Xi Jinping, who has played a greater role in the Middle East including helping broker a deal between Tehran and Riyadh, hailed the expansion as historic.

“It shows the determination of BRICS countries for unity and co-operation with the broader developing countries,” he said.

China had been pushing for the group to grow while India had expressed reluctance.

However, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi backed the outcome. “Adding new members will further strengthen BRICS and give it a new impetus,” he said.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said more countries could be included in the future.

“BRICS has embarked on a new chapter in its effort to build a world that is fair, a world that is just, a world that is also inclusive and prosperous,” Ramaphosa said.

“We have consensus on the first phase of this expansion process and other phases will follow.”

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi celebrated his country’s invitation with a swipe at Washington.

“The expansion of BRICS shows that the unilateral approach is on the way to decay,” Iran’s Arabic-language television network Al Alam quoted him as saying.

But Argentina’s centre-right presidential candidate Patricia Bullrich opposed her country joining while Russia’s invasion of Ukraine remained ongoing.

“We believe in an international order based on rules to preserve peace,” she said.

BRICS has expanded only once before, when it admitted South Africa, a year after its founding in 2009.

But there has been a rush of emerging countries applying to join amid dissatisfaction that the current world order disproportionately favours the West.

With two oil-rich OPEC members among the new entrants, they would add financial heft and introduce the Islamic world to BRICS.

China had been pushing for BRICS to grow while India had expressed reluctance.Credit: Reuters

“I think this summit has given BRICS a shot in the arm and also a dose of vindication,” Michael Kugelman from the Woodrow Wilson Centre’s South Asia Institute said in an online briefing for selected journalists.

“BRICS has managed to counter two core criticisms of the group. One is that it struggles to agree and the other that it is increasingly irrelevant.”

Modi, for example, spoke to Xi on the sidelines of the summit to highlight concerns India has about border issues along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), India’s foreign secretary said.

Modi and Xi agreed “to direct their relevant officials to intensify efforts at expeditious disengagement and de-escalation,” Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra said.

Relations between the two nuclear-armed neighbours have been sour for more than three years after soldiers from both sides clashed in the Himalayan frontier in June 2020, resulting in 24 deaths.

Kugelman said Washington would be watching with more concern but that with 11 members compared to five, this would pose challenges for BRICS which operates on consensus.

Russia’s Vladimir Putin, for whom the International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant over the kidnapping of Ukrainian children, attended virtually.

Putin said via video link: “The countries of the so-called Golden Billion have gone to great lengths to preserve the unipolar world as it used to be.”

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (centre) looks on as Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers his BRICS summit remarks via video link.Credit: AP

(The “Golden Billion” is a favourite Kremlin conspiracy theory that claims “1 billion global elites” seek to hoard the world’s wealth while leaving everyone else, in this case BRICS members, to suffer.)

Putin said: “It suits them, and they are the ones who benefit from it.

“They are trying to substitute international law with their own rules-based order, as they call it, but no one has seen these rules.”

Russia will host BRICS next year in Kazan. Kugelman said while Russia’s invasion of Ukraine should serve as a deterrent to new entrants, it would not.

Not inside the meeting: Ukrainian supporters protest near the venue of the BRICS Summit in Johannesburg.Credit: AP

“Over half by GDP has denounced Russia’s actions but over half by population have not,” he said.

“It’s an ongoing struggle for the United States and Ukraine and its allies to make people understand how aggressive, and frankly evil this war in Ukraine launched by Russia is.

“That’s on us to do but it’s also on the rest of the world to be receptive to understanding the reality of that war and the consequences of that worldwide, on food, on security, on energy security and on inflation.”

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