Pakistan’s hopes of entering the BRICS organization, despite support from Russia and China, have been dashed, likely due to opposition from rival India. Reportedly, India—a founding member alongside Brazil, Russia, China, and South Africa—blocked Pakistan’s listing as a partner country in the expansion process.
This reflects a step back from the forum’s stated desire to move past the prevailing global order, and diminishes its aims to represent the Global South.
Last November, Pakistan had announced that it had formally requested to join BRICS. Beyond its founders, the multilateral forum also counts Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, and the United Arab Emirates as members. There is no formal application process to join BRICS, but new members can be inducted on the basis of unanimous consensus of existing members. At the 2023 BRICS summit in South Africa, the organization approved the entry of Saudi Arabia, Iran, the U.A.E., Egypt, Ethiopia, and Argentina, though Argentinian President Javier Milei, upon assuming office, announced his country would not join it. To reflect its expansion, BRICS+ has informally replaced BRICS as the group’s acronym.
Under the BRICS platform, the member states—all hailing from the Global South—aspire to dominate the global economy by 2050, if they can sustain their growth. Initially dubbed BRIC—representing Brazil, Russia, India and China—the group’s origins stem from informal meetings conducted on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in 2006. At their first official summit in 2009, the BRIC states affirmed their commitment to a multipolar world order and global noninterventionism. They also called for a new global reserve currency as an alternative to the U.S. dollar. Two years later, in 2011, South Africa joined the organization, and the group’s acronym changed to BRICS. This reflected its focus away from a specific economic designation toward a more inclusive grouping of emerging regional leaders.
In 2012, BRICS members criticized aspects of the IMF and the World Bank, proposing the creation of a new international development bank to provide funding and loans for development projects in emerging economies. Operationalized in July 2014, the New Development Bank (NDB) has $100 billion in authorized capital, with each founding member holding an equal stake and contributing equally to its assets. In the past decade, Bangladesh, the U.A.E., and Egypt have also joined it, while Uruguay will officially become a member country once it deposits the instrument of accession. Is this a way out of the slowing down of the international organizations looking after the world economy?
Alongside the NDB, BRICS launched the Contingency Reserve Agreement (CRA), aimed at providing countries experiencing economic strain with liquid currency. Unlike the NDB, the CRA does not require an equal contribution from members, with China responsible for 41 percent of its initial assets. BRICS members have also discussed the creation of a common currency for trade between member countries, but have yet to take concrete steps to achieve this. In its 15th summit, in 2023, BRICS went further to modernize and galvanize the grouping, sending a strong signal that the post-World War II order should accept the multipolar reality and change with the times. The growing number of applications to join the BRICS is clearly a symptom of a deeper malaise.
The Global South’s growing disenchantment with the West stems from its proclivity to deploy unilateral financial sanctions, abuse international payments mechanisms, and renege on climate finance commitments. BRICS+ countries have thus far claimed to represent a united stand of emerging and developing countries against a world order that does not correspond to their needs. By sidelining countries like Pakistan at the behest of a single member, they make clear there is little difference between them and the prevailing world order under the auspices of the United Nations, which similarly sidelines the Global South through the veto power available to the permanent members of the its Security Council.