In a win for China, the five-nation BRICS club of emerging economies that has come together to steer the global order away from the West announced plans on Thursday to expand its membership, fueling concerns about growing global divisions.
The group said Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia have been invited to join, and their membership will begin in January.
The BRICS group announced the expansion at a summit in South Africa that attracted a level of global interest rarely seen since its first meeting in 2009. Back then, the group’s name was BRIC, an acronym coined by economists at Goldman Sachs to describe a group of developing countries with rapidly growing economies and populations: Brazil, China, India and Russia. South Africa would join a year later, adding an “S” to the acronym.
It is now a formal group that aims to challenge the dominance of Western-led forums such as the Group of Seven and the World Bank. But the leaders of the member states have repeatedly said that they do not want direct competition among these groupings, but rather to bring diversity amid increasing polarization.
“This membership expansion is historic,” China’s leader, Xi Jinping, said at a briefing with other leaders. “It shows the BRICS countries’ determination for unity and cooperation for the wider developing world.”
That polarization has been deepened by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and strained relations over economic and security issues between the United States and China. Small countries caught between the world’s rich countries face pressure to pick sides or, in some cases, occupy the middle in an effort to get the best deal from competing countries.
“The entire global south is feeling the constraints, the limitations of the current system and looking for other options,” said Cobus van Staden, a researcher at the China Global South Project.
American officials have sought to minimize the impact of the group’s expansion plans. On Tuesday, Jake Sullivan, the White House’s National Security Adviser, told reporters that the Biden administration “does not view the BRICS as some kind of geopolitical rival to the United States or anyone.”
He said the United States has “strongly positive” relationships with Brazil, India and South Africa, adding that “we will continue to manage our relationship with China; and we will continue to push back against Russian aggression.”
Despite the public display of unity at the tightly controlled conference, BRICS members brought divergent views on expansion. China has pushed for rapid expansion, seeing the grouping as a platform to challenge American power. Some leaders warned against a return to a divisive global order reminiscent of the Cold War, and were careful not to alienate partners in Europe and North America.
Mr. Xi, in a speech read by a subordinate at the summit earlier this week, said: “International policies should be written and upheld by all countries together, rather than dictated by those with strongest muscle.”
Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, said he favored expanding BRICS’ access to capital. South Africa, the smallest economy, lobbied for greater African representation.
Some of the countries invited to join have great skill in walking a fine diplomatic line with the West. Saudi Arabia, the largest trading partner of the BRICS club in the Middle East, has cultivated ties with China and shown independence from American interests despite its long-standing security relationship with the United States.
Egypt, politically and geographically spanning Africa and the Middle East, has developed strong ties with Russia and China, while maintaining its ties to the United States.
For Argentina, which is facing another economic crisis and dwindling foreign reserves, membership in BRICS could be a financial lifeline. During the summit, Mr. Lula spearheaded the creation of an alternative trading unit that would ease the dependence of developing countries on the strong US dollar. Argentina has already started repaying some of its loans in Chinese currency, analysts said, though it was unclear how much relief it would get.
Iran applied to join BRICS in June as part of its efforts to strengthen economic and political ties with non-Western powers and to show that Western efforts to isolate the country have failed. The country, which holds the world’s second-largest gas reserves and a quarter of the Middle East’s oil reserves, has stayed afloat by selling discounted oil to China, among other maneuvers.
The United Arab Emirates, which was also invited as a formal member, joined the New Development Bank of BRICS in June.
David Pierson contributed reporting from Hong Kong, Edward Wong from Washington, and Isabella Kwai from London.
