The BRICS alliance invited six new countries to join the bloc in 2024. Out of the six, five joined: the UAE, Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Ethiopia. The bloc has been mixed on thoughts to further expand in 2024. However, with the next summit scheduled for October 2024 in Russia, the BRICS bloc has made a major announcement on the future expansion of the alliance.
Indeed, Russia and China have confirmed that BRICS is open to allowing many more countries to join the bloc. Russian President Putin hinted that another new round of expansion could be initiated in the upcoming 16th BRICS summit in Kazan city. China also wants BRICS expansion in 2024 to make the group financially stronger and take on the US and other Western allies.
Russia and China Continue to Support BRICS Expansion Ahead of Summit
When asked about expansion, Putin stressed, “Of course, we will consider the degree to which many other countries, about 30 of them (expansion), are prepared to join the BRICS multi-dimensional agenda in one form or another. To this end, we will start working on the modalities of a new category of BRICS partner country.” The number of countries expected to join in the future is very variable. Around 47 countries have currently expressed their interest in joining the BRICS alliance before the next summit. Nearly 50 are also interested in adopting the BRICS currency and ditching the US Dollar.
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While other members have remained silent on the idea of mass expansion, they have continued to build support for the bloc with interested nations. For example, Brazil shared its support for Bangladesh’s joining the bloc this past April. Additionally, the South American member has done so with other countries recently. India is insistent on holding off expansion to strengthen the bloc and its current countries further.
BRICS is now a 10-member group and further expansion will make it receive a big financial boost. Furthermore, trade between new BRICS countries could be reshaped and experience a paradigm shift in transactions. The BRICS’ main aim is to end reliance on the US dollar and settle trade in local currencies. Indeed, the more countries that join the bloc, the stronger it gets. Correspondingly, the US dollar is put into a more precarious position.
