Written by Marc Jütten.
Under Russia’s presidency, BRICS (acronym for the founding states – Brazil, Russia, India and China) held its first summit following the group’s expansion on 1 January 2024, from 22 to 24 October in Kazan (Russia). With more than 30 delegations, 22 heads of state or government and several representatives of international organisations including United Nations (UN) Secretary-General António Guterres attending, the summit was a diplomatic success for Russia: it offered President Vladimir Putin the opportunity to demonstrate to the world that Russia is not isolated. For the first time, a NATO member, Türkiye, attended the summit, and applied to join BRICS. The meeting in Kazan underlined BRICS’s ambition to foster relations with the Global South, and its aim of shaping an alternative multipolar world order, particularly in the global financial and trade system.
Background
BRICS is an intergovernmental organisation originally comprising Brazil, China, India, Russia and South Africa. On 1 January 2024, BRICS admitted four new members: Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates. Saudi Arabia has been invited to join but has yet to accept the invitation. Argentina, under the leadership of President Javier Milei, turned down the invitation. BRICS represents about 45 % of the world’s population (compared with the G7’s 10 %), and accounts for 37.3 % of global gross domestic product – more than twice as much as the EU (14.5 %). The recent expansion stresses BRICS’s goal to create an alternative world order by giving greater prominence to the perspectives of the Global South and making them more central to global discussions.
Russia’s 2024 BRICS presidency
On 1 January 2024, Russia took over the rotating BRICS presidency from South Africa. Under the South African presidency, the group, at the 15th BRICS Summit in Johannesburg (August 2023), agreed the decision to expand. The Russian BRICS presidency was therefore special in that the expanded BRICS circle came together for the first time at the Kazan Summit.
Outlining Russia’s priorities at the start of its presidency, President Putin stressed that Russia would promote the BRICS partnership in three key areas: politics and security, economy and finance, and cultural and humanitarian contacts. In his address, Putin highlighted the attraction of BRICS for other countries from the Global South, and stated that about 30 additional countries would be prepared to join the BRICS’s multidimensional agenda. Moreover, he said that Russia would focus on enhancing the BRICS’s role in the international monetary system, expanding both interbank cooperation and the use of national currencies in mutual trade. Consequently, Russia called for concrete steps to establish a new international payments system, the ‘BRICS Bridge‘. The idea behind this alternative to the dollar-based trading system is to build a sanctions-proof payments system that would use digital money issued by central banks and backed by fiat currencies.
The Russian BRICS programme included, under the three above-mentioned priorities, 40 measures covering a broad variety of topics, such as the integration of the association’s new members, creating strong BRICS ties with developing nations, combating money laundering and fighting terrorism. Over 200 side meetings and events organised by the Russian presidency were scheduled to take place over the course of 2024.
The most striking development from the EU’s perspective might well be that in September 2024, prior to the Kazan summit, a leaked document reportedly revealed that Türkiye submitted an application for membership in BRICS. Analysts see Türkiye’s intention to join the group as confirmation of the country’s foreign policy independence and geopolitical balancing policy between Russia, China and the West.
Summit result: ‘Strengthening multilateralism for just global development and security’
The 16th BRICS Summit, held in Kazan under the theme ‘Strengthening multilateralism for just global development and security’, was deemed a diplomatic success for Russia, since – as observers pointed out – it offered Putin a welcome opportunity to demonstrate to the world that Russia is not isolated. Leaders participating in the meeting included the President of China, Xi Jinping, the President of Egypt, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Abiy Ahmed, the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, the President of Iran, Masoud Pezeshkian, and the President of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa. (The President of Brazil, Lula da Silva, took part via video conference, as he was unable to travel.) In addition, invited guests such as Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, President of Türkiye, and UN Secretary‑General António Guterres attended the meeting, as well.
The BRICS’s outreach towards states from the Global South is considered another of the Russian BRICS presidency’s achievements. The summit declaration, adopted by all leaders, includes references to cooperation with the Global South and the group’s intention to include additional emerging markets and developing countries from Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East. Although no further countries were invited to join the alliance as full members, 13 nations have been added as partners: Algeria, Belarus, Bolivia, Cuba, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Nigeria, Thailand, Türkiye, Uganda, Vietnam and Uzbekistan.
Looking at the specific results, an analyst argues that the Kazan declaration fell short in particular with a view to Putin’s key objective, i.e. to take concrete steps to establish the BRICS Bridge alternative payment system mentioned above. On this, the final declaration remains rather vague, mentioning the widespread benefits of faster, low-cost, more efficient, transparent, safe and inclusive cross-border payment instruments, built on the principle of minimising trade barriers and non-discriminatory access. The expert points out that notably Brazil and India have no strong interest to ‘de-dollarise’ the world economy.
Outlook
In 2025, Brazil, which currently also holds the G20 presidency, is expected to take over the BRICS presidency. In his speech during the open plenary session of the BRICS summit, President Lula said that the forthcoming Brazilian BRICS presidency plans to reaffirm the bloc’s vocation in the fight for a multipolar world, for less asymmetrical relations between countries, and to move forward with creating alternative payment methods for transactions between the BRICS countries.
The multifaceted debate surrounding BRICS expansion and its potential impact on global affairs is influenced by differing viewpoints. Proponents argue that the inclusion of additional countries in BRICS+ could provide a platform for the Global South to assert its interests and challenge traditional Western dominance in global affairs. They point to BRICS countries’ combined economic strength, arguing that this collective economic weight could serve as a counterbalance to what they perceive as Western hegemony. Sceptics see BRICS as a ‘paper tiger’. According to them, the inclusion of countries with varying political, economic and social interests could lead to internal tensions and hinder the group’s ability to reach consensus on key issues. As regards the EU, experts stress that the growing global interest in BRICS membership should be reason enough to monitor BRICS’s further development strategically, and to cooperate politically and economically more closely with the Global South.
European Parliament position
In an October 2023 exchange of views with European Commission representatives, Members of the Parliament’s Committee on International Trade (INTA) underlined the need to pay close attention to BRICS’s expansion, in particular considering the effect of a potential BRICS+ currency and the consequences for EU trade policy. The EU as a whole does not entertain formal relations with BRICS. Although no dedicated BRICS policy or strategy targeting the group as a whole exists, the EU has bilateral and interregional agreements and partnerships with the individual members.
Read this ‘At a glance’ note on ‘Outcome of the 16th BRICS Summit in Kazan, Russia‘ in the Think Tank pages of the European Parliament.
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