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South Africa is preparing to host an influential summit of BRICS nations, joined by other participants from the Global South, aiming to counterbalance the dominance of Western powers and navigate their internal differences. The forthcoming gathering, scheduled for August 22-24 in Johannesburg, will bring together more than 40 leaders, including Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa, China’s Xi Jinping, India’s Narendra Modi, Brazil’s Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov standing in for Vladimir Putin, who will participate virtually due to potential legal concerns.

The meeting carries significant implications, encompassing the following key aspects:

1. Membership Expansion: The central agenda of the summit involves deliberations on the potential expansion of the current BRICS lineup. This exclusive club, consisting of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, is contemplating the addition of new members among the 23 nations expressing interest, such as Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt. While China’s push for enlargement has raised concerns in India about China’s dominance, and Brazil’s apprehensions about straining Western relations, the resistance to expansion has somewhat softened. The nations are now advocating for clear admission rules and criteria.

• Shifting Currency Dynamics: The coalition will revisit the idea of reducing the supremacy of the US dollar in global transactions, prompted by US interest rate increases and geopolitical tensions. Proposals include expanding the use of national currencies among members for trade and establishing a shared payment system. While creating a unified currency remains a long-term aspiration, various BRICS members have already taken steps to employ their local currencies in cross-border commerce, hinting at a gradual shift away from the US dollar.

• New Development Bank and Financial Diplomacy: The New Development Bank, established as an alternative to the IMF and World Bank, is at the centre of the BRICS financial strategy. It’s striving to diversify funding sources and boost lending in local currencies by 2026. The bank’s plans have been influenced by Western sanctions on Russia, a founding member, following its involvement in Ukraine. Efforts are underway to expand the bank’s funding sources, with Middle Eastern and Asian countries expressing interest in contributing capital.

• Addressing Global Conflicts: The ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine will feature prominently on the agenda. BRICS nations, while generally aligned on this matter, have diverged in their stance. South Africa is spearheading an African initiative to bring an end to the fighting, reflecting the bloc’s ambitions to influence global peace.

• Food Security and Agricultural Cooperation: Escalating food prices, exacerbated by actions from India and Russia, have detrimental effects on vulnerable populations. India’s protective export measures and Russia’s withdrawal from a grain deal have exacerbated the problem. The summit will address these concerns, considering the significance of rice in the diets of Asians and Africans. Both India and China are expected to discuss agriculture-related matters in dedicated forums during the event.

• As these leaders gather in Johannesburg’s business hub, Sandton, they are poised to navigate a range of critical issues that span economic, geopolitical, and humanitarian domains. The BRICS summit presents an opportunity for these nations to collaboratively shape the global landscape, challenging established Western dominance and striving for a more equitable and balanced world order.

The 15th summit of the BRICS group (composed of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), will take place in Johannesburg, South Africa, from August 22- 24 2023. It can be seen as one of the most important meetings of the group so far, as well as a sign of stopgap in the midst of a complex and excited transnational script. Indeed so, one cannot rule out the fact that the current fermentation in transnational politics has direct consequences for all the countries in the group, which are expressed in varied ways of intra- andextra-BRICS competition.

In addition to the growing contest between China and India over border controversies and a military standoff on the so- called Line of factual Control, as well as India’s enterprises about China’s protuberance in its immediate surroundings, the BRICS are also dealing with the consequences and profitable impacts of the Russian irruption of Ukraine. The Russian chairman won’t be suitable to attend the summit of the group for the first time, due to the possibility of being arrested since South Africa is party to the International Criminal Court. The ICC has issued a leave for President Vladimir Putin’s arrest, due to allegations of war crimes in Ukraine.

BRICS’ profitable arm, the New Development Bank (NDB), is also facing complications from the Russia- Ukraine war. As of March 2022, Russia has had all trading within the NDB firmed, representing a total exposure of$1.8 billion to realities housed in Russia. As the NDB relies on external backing( through mechanisms similar as the allocation of debt securities on public and/ or transnational capital requests) and capital from bank members, the ongoing conflict combined with external pressure from the West and warrants to Russia have made it delicate for the NDB to seek external coffers. This is one further factor impeding internal cohesion among the BRICS.

This said, that it’s also important to note the openings in the midst of a complex transnational script. oil painting exporters to China known as the petro- yuan club – i.e. Russia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, and Angola – are decreasingly using the Chinese currency in marketable deals. India and Indonesia have also blazoned analogous enterprise. Meanwhile, Brazil has showed signs of interest in expanding the use of a common currency in Mercosur. For the coming BRICS summit, the launch of a payment system in common currencies is anticipated.

But utmost captions have stressed the fact that BRICS is considering expanding for the first time since 2010, when South Africa joined what was also known as “ BRIC. ” Such a move would change the nature of the grouping and its part in the transnational order.

Why Expand?

The main reasons for expanding BRICS can be attributed to the intensification of the East- West battle, the deepening of “BRICS Plus” cooperation, and the demands of knot countries.

In the new environment of the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine and the intensification of China-U.S. competition, the East- West battle has come decreasingly prominent, where both sides seek to expand their networks of hook-ups. As developing countries, and to some extent indigenous powers in their geographic locales, the BRICS countries are driven, in proposition, by a strong provocation to absorb other knot countries from important strategic locales to join their field, as in the case of Argentina in relation to Brazil, just to name one.

Facing review of BRICS as an exclusive club and going beyond outreach with separate sub-regions, BRICS Plus was introduced during China’s administration in 2017 to strengthen dialogue and cooperation between BRICS countries and other developing countries and promote the establishment of broader hook-ups. Although BRICS Plus presents a platform for developing countries, enabling them to increase their representation in global governance, this expansion process is also part of China’s broader profitable and geopolitical interests.

And therein lies the irk. The current script in which the expansion of the BRICS is being bandied is one of wide divergence, which makes the content a controversial point. The five nations don’t all have analogous positions in relation to the expansion of the group.

How Can Expansion Favor China and Russia?

Wang Yi, China’s top foreign affairs functionary, has bravely declared that the Asian country is proposing procedures for a future and gradational expansion of the BRICS beyond the profitable sector, since the NDB formerly includes countries that aren’t sanctioned members of the group, similar as the UAE, Egypt and Bangladesh. Wang says China will seek the agreement of the other member countries on this point.

China is immensely important in the BRICS, as shown by its capability to bargain in opinions. By the same commemorative, the group is also pivotal for China, which seeks to secure itself as the main power in the midst of the possible reorientation of the world order presently afoot. Beijing’s ideal in defending the expansion of the BRICS would be the conformation of a coalition of countries in opposition to the G- 7 bloc and its attempts to check China’s global growth.

originally, China’s expansion intentions didn’t have the support of Russia. But in a environment of adding insulation from Western countries, which have been obliging Moscow with warrants due to the war, Russia’s dependence on China has been strengthening and, together, they’re forming ananti-Western bloc.

In the environment of pressure between the United States and Russia and a trade battle between theU.S. and China, expansion would have a strategic geopolitical element, especially in relation to the attempt to attract abettors with strategic coffers or strategic geographic positions, as well as to influence the design toward thede-dollarization of the global frugality.

What’s Left for Brazil and India?

Brazil and India, still, are reticent to expand and have a desire to maintain the group with its five members. In addition to the complicated geopolitics, with neither wanting to be seen as part of ananti-Washington grouping, there’s a more introductory computation With the entry of new members, the two countries may have their influence in the group lowered, and the BRICS would cease to be an exclusive group. There’s also the fact that both Brazil and India worry for further voice in transnational relations, including positions as endless members of the United Nations Security Council – a pursuit that has set up little support from China and Russia.

Another argument we must take into account about the expansion of the BRICS is related to the size of the group. A larger grouping can reduce political conjunctions and make it delicate for ideas to come together. For illustration, the coalition of developing countries in the United Nations, the G- 77, includes a large number of developing countries, but has a reduced degree of power.

China, which has proposed the idea of BRICS Plus since 2017, will formerly again raise this content at the 15th summit and should bring to the debate the possible criteria for expanding the group. still, this will be an docket worked on by the group over time and shouldn’t be defined at a single summit. Due to the clear resistance on the part of Brazil and India, it’s egregious that the idea of expansion doesn’t enjoy a agreement. Indeed if there was in- principle agreement on expansion, how to elect and add new members would be a complicated question.

There are other issues at stake that should be addressed at this meeting, similar asde-dollarization systems and reforms of transnational associations, as well as the bloc’s ongoing trouble to propose further decision- making positions for arising powers, especially the BRICS countries, in a transnational request decreasingly in flux. More importantly, it’s anticipated that the coming summit will formerly advertise a payment system in common currencies within the frame of the NDB. The issue of expansion shouldn’t be allowed to overshadow the progress formerly passing in other areas.

Filipe Porto is a master’s pupil in International Relations at Universidade Federal do ABC in Brazil. He’s an associate experimenter at the Brazilian Foreign Policy Observatory (OPEB/ UFABC) and at Brazilian Naval War School’s crossroad Assessment Center, where he researches China’s relations with the world.