BRICS to expand to 11 countries from 2024
President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa has announced that Iran, Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates will be joining Brics from 1 January 2024.
Talks over the possibility of expanding the Brics bloc – made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – has dominated the agenda at the summit in Johannesburg, South Africa.
The group wants to gain more influence in the world hence the need to bring in more countries to solidify its presence at the global stage.
BRICS is a grouping of the world economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa formed by the 2010 addition of South Africa to the predecessor BRIC.
The original acronym “BRIC”, or “the BRICs”, was coined in 2001 by Goldman Sachs economist Jim O’Neill to describe fast-growing economies that would collectively dictate the global economy by 2050.
The alliance is estimated to have a total population of about 3.21 billion, or about 26.7% of the world’s land surface.
Brazil, Russia, India, and China are among the world’s ten largest countries by population, area, and GDP (PPP), and the latter three are widely considered to be current or emerging superpowers.
