What you need to know about the BRICS Summit

The countries that make up the group, such as China, Brazil and India, have little in common, but they are united by the same objective:

change the world order.

Leaders of the BRICS, a group of emerging market countries that represent about half the world’s population, will meet Tuesday at a high level summit the first since its major expansion last year.

BRICS is the acronym for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

This year, the group has expanded to include Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates.

Members will gather for the three-day conference in the southwestern Russian city of Kazan.

The summit takes place at a time of great notoriety for the BRICS group, which is considered a counterweight to the West.

World leaders will stand shoulder to shoulder with the president of Russia, Vladimir Putin despite his pariah status in the West.

But there are deep differences between member states, and the bloc has had difficulty articulating and defining its purpose.

The group was invented in 2001 by a banker from Goldman Sachs to describe a group of rapidly growing developing countries.

The foreign ministers of the countries—initially just Brazil, Russia, India and China—began meeting informally in 2006, and held their first formal summit in 2009.

South Africa joined in 2010.

Many more countries have sought to join the BRICS orbit since the 2023 enlargement, which China backed.

But not everyone was so eager:

Argentina declined the invitation after a change of government, and Saudi Arabia has not officially joined, despite having received an invitation.

Currently, its members represent more than 35 percent of world economic outputadjusted for purchasing power.

The BRICS has long attempted to present a united front against what its members see as an unbalanced world order dominated by the United States and Western Europe.

Some members believe “that the current world order is somewhat made by the West, for the West,” said Stewart Patrick, senior researcher at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

This summit will also be an opportunity for the BRICS to showcase its new list, oriented towards the Global South.

The group could also discuss the incorporation of a category of partners who do not become full members.

It is not easy to pigeonhole the BRICS.

The group includes some countries that are allies, but also some that are antagonists and rivals.

Some of the countries oppose the United States (Russia, Iran); others receive US military aid (Egypt) and host US military bases (UAE).

Some members are democracies; many are not.

Ethiopia is a poor country; China is the second largest economy in the world.

Some States produce oil and gas; others import their energy.

Nor do they share a religion or fight the same wars, except, perhaps, against each other: last month, for example, tensions between Ethiopia and Egypt in a long-running dispute over a hydroelectric dam on the Nile River.

Sarang Shidore, director of the Global South program at the Quincy Institute in Washington, described the BRICS as something akin to a coalition with two aspects.

He calls one part “Global East” —China, Russia and, sometimes, Iran—which are rivals or antagonists of the United States and NATO.

Many of the other countries in the bloc fit more comfortably into the category of “On Global”.

They tend to be more neutral or directly allied with the US.

China is a major rival of the US while US adversaries Russia and Iran are under harsh Western sanctions and fighting proxy wars with the West in Ukraine and the Middle East.

Together, these three countries hope to present a more united bloc to counter the West.

Putin is also determined to show the West that he is not alone and that he has important allies on his side.

Putin presents his country’s war in Ukraine as “the tip of the spear to destroy the old world order and help build a new one,” said Alexander Gabuev, director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center in Berlin.

“And the BRIC is the most powerful and representative structure of this new world order.”

reduce global dependence on the US dollar.

Reducing the dollar’s dominance could insulate its members from Western sanctions, both now and in the future.

“These sanctions only work because the dollar rules the world,” Shidore said.

“It is an attempt to isolate oneself from the hegemony of the dollar.”

For now, the goal is mostly aspirational.

There is no clear agreement on what could replace the dollar.

Experts also show up skeptics regarding any new BRICS-specific currency being stable enough to be trusted for cross-border transactions.

Many BRICS members are trying to balance competing alliances and priorities.

They continue to work closely with the United States and other Western nations, even as they try to gain more global influence.

India, which has trumpeted its multiple strategic alignment, is also part of the Quad alliancea security partnership with Australia, Japan and the United States.

Egypt and the Emirates have moved closer to China, while collaborating with the United States and Israel on regional security.

Brazil, a firm supporter of de-dollarization, remains largely dependent on the US, which is its second largest trading partner.

“They are not anti-Western, but they are critical of the current order and want to minimize risks,” Shidore said.

Participation in the BRICS is partly an economic gamble.

Some members, as well as potential associated states, are also seeking alternative sources of funding.

He International Monetary Fund and the World Bank They are dominated by the West, especially the United States.

Some developing countries consider the BRICS development bank to be less demanding.

It has made loans worth billions of dollars and allows repayments in local currency.

But many members also see BRICS as a geopolitical insurance against a changing world, and a hedge against the unpredictability of the United States.

The uncertainty surrounding the presidential election only adds to the sense of unease, Patrick said:

“The United States has shown that it is capable of giving a 180 degree turn to his foreign policy, depending on who occupies the White House.”

China, which championed expansion, is considered the unofficial power of the BRICS.

“There is nothing happening in the BRICS that goes against China’s national interests,” said Jacob Kirkegaard, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

China and Russia are very close, although they sometimes compete for influence. China has been a key trading partner for Russia during the Ukraine war.

Recently, the two countries have become bolder:

Its armies have carried out joint maneuvers near the US, Japan and Taiwan.

China also buys almost all of Iran’s oil exports. Any loss of supply from Iran—due to a military attack by Israel, for example—would cause China to turn to global markets to further meet its energy needs.

And China and India are in a reassessment period.

The countries, which have fought several wars against each other, also see each other as potential future adversaries.

India’s population is growing; China’s is declining.

India is buoyed by economic optimism; China’s growth has been mediocre.

But after many Indian and Chinese soldiers were killed in border disputes, the countries appear to be trying to reach a truce.

Some analysts are watching to see if their leaders appear friendly at the summit, which could be a sign of closer ties.

Valerie Hopkins and David Pierson contributed reporting.

Amelia Nierenberg is a breaking news reporter for The New York Times in London covering international news.