The sixteenth annual BRICS (whose membership has grown from Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa to also include Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates) summit was held in Kazan, Russia, on October 22-October 24. 2024. What was new and innovative at the summit this year, and how the bloc is changing the geopolitical context? Six Council of Councils (CoC) experts from BRICS member countries and beyond reflect on the future of the group and what expansion means for global governance. Fyodor Lukyanov, Editor-in-Chief of Russia in Global Affairs, Chairman of the Presidium of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy (SVOP), is among them.
BRICS as Diversification of the World Order
Global politics is a paradox. The acronym “BRIC,” coined by Goldman Sachs for its own marketing purposes, has evolved over twenty years into a community of the most influential non-Western states. The 2024 BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia, was an unqualified success for the Kremlin, and a clear indication that Russia’s isolation only works from one side: the West.
The rest of the world sees no point in joining in the policy of pressuring Russia, whether they endorse Russian behavior in particular cases or not.
But this is not the main significance of the summit. The BRICS (whose membership has grown from Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa to also include Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates) is an unusual community that does not bear the hallmarks of a traditional international institution. So far, it is a rather amorphous club with a single unifying principle: creating a space for interaction that bypasses Western states and institutions. An overtly anti-Western policy will not prevail in the BRICS, as the overwhelming majority of states there are not interested in aggravating relations with the West. But they are eager to have different options for building political and economic ties, free of U.S. and EU guidance and mechanisms.
This aspiration reflects objective changes on the world stage. First, the redistribution of potential—demographic, economic, military, and to some extent, technological—is creating the conditions for a shift away from the Western-centric system of world order.
Non-Western countries have become much more confident in demanding change.
Second, the policies of the United States and the European Union, which insist on following their own visions and persecuting dissenters, are provoking rejection almost everywhere outside the Western community. This is not because of attitudes toward Russia, which vary widely outside the West, but because of the principle itself. Ideologically and politically motivated restrictions are perceived by the majority of international actors as an obstacle to normal development.
The further development of the BRICS will depend on many circumstances. Not all member states consider their participation in the bloc a priority. However, the general movement toward diversification of the world order and away from any one group’s domination will continue, and the BRICS will play an increasing role in this.