The leaders of the Brics reached a consensus and are going to invite five countries to be the new members of the bloc. As found out by CNN with a source directly linked to the negotiations, the announcement of the invitations will be made on the morning of this Thursday (24), the day of the closing of the 15th Summit of the Leaders of the Brics.
The five new members of the BRICS will be:
- Argentina
- Saudi Arabia
- Egypt
- United Arab Emirates
- Will
Indonesia, which could also have been invited, decided during the summit to wait longer to consider joining the group.
All countries will be full members, with the same rights as the original nations: Brazil, Russia, India and China – and South Africa, which joined in 2011.
The accession process will take place over a year and it is expected that all new members will already be present at the next leaders’ summit, in Russia, in 2024.
Brazil defended the entry of Argentina, Mercosur’s commercial partner. According to negotiators, there was no controversy related to the country’s entry, which is facing a serious economic crisis.
The joint accession of Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, all dictatorships, ensured a balance for the bloc, as there are important rivalries between them.
Iran and Saudi Arabia are major regional adversaries, who only recently resumed diplomatic relations – thanks to the mediation of China, which wanted the two countries in the bloc.
Furthermore, an invitation to two Sunni-majority countries (Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates) without the same nod to a Shia-majority country (Iran) could be misunderstood in the Muslim world.
The decision to expand the group contemplates the interests of China and Russia, who intend to use the Brics as a kind of counterpoint to the G7, led by the United States, and other global governance entities.
The idea of expansion had been discussed for years, but it gained momentum recently due to the increasingly fierce geopolitical dispute between China and the United States, the two largest economies in the world, and the isolation of Russia because of the invasion of Ukraine.
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), however, denied that the intention of the Brics is to counterpoint any other group, be it “the G-7, the G-20 or even the United States”.
A source very close to Lula also said that the main interest of the Brics is to defend the interests of the group within a global order that has been changing very quickly and becoming a multipolar world.
One of Brazil’s requests to accept the entry of new members was a clear declaration by China and Russia that they support the country having a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.
According to the negotiators, the final statement to be released on Thursday (24th) should include clear language of Security Council reform, but without explicit support for any country.
Source: CNN Brasil
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