# Global Events

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BRICS: The House of Multilaterals What Is BRICS?  BRICS is a grouping of major emerging economies that coordinates policy positions and cooperation projects outside the traditional Western-led institutions. The name originally stood for Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, and by 2025 the bloc also included Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates, with Saudi Arabia holding an invited but still unconfirmed status. Unlike a treaty body such as the EU or NATO, BRICS has no binding charter, no permanent secretariat, and no headquarters. Its weight comes from the combined size of its members, who together represent close to half the world's population and a large share of global output measured at purchasing power parity. Origins and Evolution The term "BRIC" was coined in 2001 by Goldman Sachs economist Jim O'Neill to describe four economies poised to reshape global growth. Those four countries turned the label into a diplomatic reality, holding their first leaders' summit in Yekaterinburg, Russia, in 2009. South Africa joined in 2010, adding the "S." The group stayed at five members for over a decade, meeting annually to issue joint declarations on trade, development, and governance reform. That changed at the 2023 Johannesburg summit, which invited six new countries; four of them, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the UAE, formally joined in January 2024, and Indonesia followed in January 2025. In 2024 the bloc also created a "partner country" tier for states such as Belarus, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Nigeria, Thailand, and Vietnam that engage without full membership. Goals and Areas of Cooperation BRICS rests on three broad ambitions: giving emerging economies more say in global governance, deepening economic ties among members, and reducing collective dependence on Western-centered institutions and currencies. On the economic front, members push for reform of IMF and World Bank voting shares and coordinate positions at the G20 and WTO. On the political front, summits address conflicts such as the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, counterterrorism, and calls for a more representative UN Security Council. On development and finance, the group has built its own lending and payment channels to fund infrastructure in the Global South and to settle more trade in local currencies rather than the US dollar. Key Institutions and Recent Developments The clearest institutional legacy of BRICS is the New Development Bank, agreed in 2014 in Fortaleza, Brazil, and headquartered in Shanghai. It finances infrastructure and sustainable-development projects and has since admitted further borrowing members, including Bangladesh, Egypt, and the UAE. Alongside it, the Contingent Reserve Arrangement pools roughly 100 billion dollars to help members cushion balance-of-payments shocks. At its July 2025 summit in Rio de Janeiro, BRICS leaders discussed AI governance, global health, and tensions over US tariffs, while stopping short of endorsing a common currency. India is hosting the 2026 summit in New Delhi, continuing the bloc's push to present itself as a voice for the Global South. Criticisms and Challenges BRICS draws persistent skepticism alongside its rising profile. Its members span democracies and authoritarian states with sharply different foreign-policy interests, which makes consensus difficult and often produces cautious, lowest-common-denominator declarations. Rivalry between India and China limits deeper integration, and the group still lacks transparent criteria for admitting new members, leaving cases like Saudi Arabia's in limbo. Plans for "de-dollarization" and a shared currency have moved slowly, with the 2025 Rio declaration notably silent on the subject. Supporters counter that BRICS's value lies less in binding rules than in offering developing economies a shared platform for institutional reform, functioning less like a rigid alliance and more like a house where multilateral voices gather.   Sources New Development Bank (official) — https://www.ndb.int/ BRICS Brazil 2025 Presidency, "New Development Bank" — https://brics.br/en/about-the-brics/new-development-bank Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, "BRICS Expansion and the Future of World Order" — https://carnegieendowment.org/research/2025/03/brics-expansion-and-the-future-of-world-order-perspectives-from-member-states-partners-and-aspirants Related Videos "Brics: The G-7 Economic Alliance's Rival, Explained | WSJ" — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wvcg0ry70U "The Basics of BRICS" (Bloomberg) — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isQYbLAqLoI "BRICS: What is it, who wants in and why?" (Reuters) — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ajsXjjSzN0