BRICS leaders will meet in South Africa next week to discuss expanding bloc membership to dozens of other “Global South” nations. Chinese President Xi Jinping, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will all represent their nations at the two-day summit beginning August 22.
Although BRICS countries are not homogenous in their economic or political aims, they all seek to challenge a world order dominated by the United States and its closest allies. China, South Africa, and Russia are all keen to bring new members into the bloc, especially in Africa. India remains on the fence, and Brazil views expanding an already loosely-connected block as counterproductive. Brazil did suggest a BRICS currency to rival the dollar earlier this year, but South African officials report this is unlikely to come to fruition. The bloc’s New Development Bank (NDB) has also only approved $33 billion in loans over the past 10 years, equivalent to a third of the World Bank’s total disbursal in 2022. Recent economic sanctions against Russia further weakened the NDB. Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend the summit due to an international arrest warrant for war crimes in Ukraine.
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