Back BRICS Afrikaans بريكس Arabic BRICS AST BRICS Azerbaijani БРИКС Bashkir БРІКС Byelorussian БРІКС BE-X-OLD БРИКС Bulgarian ব্রিক্স Bengali/Bangla BRICS BS
 BRICS logo during the 2025 Brazilian chairmanship | |
 In blue the BRICS member countries. | |
| Named after | First five member states' initials in English |
|---|---|
| Formation |
|
| Founded at |
|
| Type | Intergovernmental organization |
| Purpose | Political and economical |
| Fields | International politics |
| Membership |  Brazil Russia India China South Africa Egypt Ethiopia Indonesia Iran United Arab Emirates |
Formerly called | BRIC |
BRICS is an intergovernmental organization consisting of ten countries—Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates. It is considered to be a counterpart and alternative to the G7 bloc of the world's largest economies and combined represent nearly half[2] of the world's population.
The term 'BRIC' was originally identified to highlight investment opportunities.[3] The multipolar[4] grouping[5][6] evolved diplomatically,[7] geopolitically[8] and geoeconomically,[8] with their governments meeting annually at formal summits and coordinating multilateral policies since the founding countries of Brazil, Russia, India, and China held the first leaders summit in Russia in 2009 under the name BRIC. Relations among BRICS are conducted mainly based on non-interference, equality, and mutual benefit.[9]
In April 2010, South Africa attended the 2nd BRIC summit, making its first appearance as a guest. The nation was added as a member and the organization was officially renamed BRICS in September 2010. The 3rd BRICS summit in 2011 was the first held with all five titular countries in attendance as members.[10][11] Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, and the United Arab Emirates attended their first summit as member states at the 2024 summit in Russia.[12] Indonesia officially joined as a member state in early 2025, becoming the first Southeast Asian member.[13][14] The acronym BRICS+ has been informally used to reflect new membership.[12][8]
Some in the West consider BRICS institutions an alternative to institutions such as those led by nations of the G7 bloc, which are among the world's leading economies.[8] Others describe the grouping as an incoherent joining of countries around increasing anti-Western and anti-American objectives.[15] Together BRICS has implemented competing initiatives such as the New Development Bank, the BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement, BRICS pay, the BRICS Joint Statistical Publication[16] and the BRICS basket reserve currency.[17] In its first 15 years BRICS has established almost 60 intra-group institutions, and think tanks to dialogues, covering agenda in 34 subjects.[18] BRICS has received both praise and criticism from numerous commentators and world leaders.[19][20][21][22][23]
- ^ Staff writer (2024). "BRICS". UIA Global Civil Society Database. uia.org. Brussels, Belgium: Union of International Associations. Yearbook of International Organizations Online. Retrieved 24 December 2024.
- ^ Kurian, Oommen C.; Sarkar, Debosmita; Suri, Shoba (13 January 2025). "The Role of BRICS Leadership in Forging Climate and Health Strategies for a One-Health World". Observer Research Foundation. Retrieved 20 January 2025.
- ^ Xie, Ye (8 November 2015). "Goldman's BRIC Era Ends as Fund Folds After Years of Losses". Bloomberg. Archived from the original on 31 January 2023. Retrieved 10 November 2022.
- ^ Gallagher, Adam; Cheatham, Andrew (17 October 2024). "What's Driving a Bigger BRICS and What Does it Mean for the U.S.?". United States Institute of Peace. Retrieved 15 January 2025.
Multipolarity is the first trend that must be considered when thinking about BRICS' growing relevance.
- ^ Curtis, John (11 November 2024). "The BRICS group: Overview and recent expansion" (PDF). House of Commons Library, UK Parliament. Research Briefing.
Writing in 2023, Bhaso Ndzendze of the University of Johannesburg observed that the BRICS has "at various points […] has referred to itself as a forum, a platform, a mechanism, a partnership, or a strategic partnership, to name a few". Professor Ndzendze notes it has been labelled by others as "an alliance or a bloc".
- ^ Ndzendze, Bhaso (24 August 2023). "Brics expansion: six more nations are set to join – what they're buying into". The Conversation. Retrieved 18 January 2025.
Others have called it an alliance or a bloc. It is neither.
- ^ Cooper, Andrew Fenton (2016). The BRICS: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-872339-4.
… the BRICS has developed into an informal diplomatic club […] What began as a device for signifying emerging trends into the global economy has morphed into a political and diplomatic project […] Concrete diplomatic practice—both in terms of internal and external dynamics—also played an important role in building the BRICS …
- ^ a b c d Patrick, Stewart (9 October 2024). "BRICS Expansion, the G20, and the Future of World Order". Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Archived from the original on 19 November 2024. Retrieved 24 November 2024.
... To some in the West, the emergence of BRICS+ suggests something even more ominous—a world that is fragmenting into competing blocs, thanks to intensifying geopolitical rivalry between East and West and growing mutual alienation between North and South. According to this reading, Beijing and Moscow are intent on exploiting some countries' resentment of the United States and its wealthy world allies to consolidate an anti-Western counterweight to the venerable Group of 7 (G7), a process that is likely to paralyze global cooperation within other multilateral venues. ... From the outset, BRICS was conceived as a geopolitical and geoeconomic counterweight to the West ...
- ^ Gutemberg Pacheco Lopes Junior. "The Sino-Brazilian Principles in a Latin American and BRICS Context: The Case for Comparative Public Budgeting Legal Research; Wisconsin International Law Journal; 13 May 2015" (PDF). University of Wisconsin Law School. Archived (PDF) from the original on 30 September 2021. Retrieved 7 September 2016.
- ^ "What is BRICS, which countries want to join and why?". Reuters. Archived from the original on 18 November 2023. Retrieved 8 February 2024.
- ^ Oliver Stuenkel (2020). The BRICS and the Future of Global Order (2 ed.). Lexington Books. p. 1. ISBN 978-0739193211.
- ^ a b Cite error: The named reference
:7was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Cite error: The named reference
Reuters-1was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ "Indonesia joins BRICS group of emerging economies". Al Jazeera. 7 January 2025. Retrieved 7 January 2025.
- ^ Johnson, Keith (21 October 2024). "Can BRICS Finally Take On the West?". Foreign Policy.
- ^ "BRICS Joint Statistical Publications". Federal State Statistics Service. Archived from the original on 17 January 2024.
- ^ Raimondi, Paolo (2 September 2023). "BRICS: The role of the unit of account for the new "basket of currencies"". India Foundation. Archived from the original on 4 October 2023.
- ^ Kirton, John; Larionova, Marina (2022). "The First Fifteen Years of the BRICS" (PDF). International Organisations Research Journal. 17 (2). doi:10.17323/1996-7845-2022-02-01.
- ^ "ILO head praises BRICS countries' commitment to social dialogue". ILO. 3 August 2018. Archived from the original on 25 August 2023. Retrieved 25 August 2023.
- ^ Wolff, Richard D. (3 October 2022). "BRICS: the powerful global alliance". canadiandimension.com. Archived from the original on 25 August 2023. Retrieved 25 August 2023.
- ^ Maitra, Sumantra (18 April 2013). "BRICS – India is the biggest loser". USINPAC. Archived from the original on 28 October 2013. Retrieved 17 June 2013.
- ^ Blakeley, Grace (15 February 2023). "BRIC Nationalism Is No Alternative". Jacobin. Archived from the original on 25 August 2023. Retrieved 25 August 2023.
- ^ Coughlin, Con (24 August 2023). "Brics is now a motley crew of failing states". The Daily Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Archived from the original on 25 August 2023. Retrieved 25 August 2023.