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BRICS To See Major Expansion With 25 Nations Gearing Up To Join Alliance Featured

  05 January 2024
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Moscow: The BRICS Summit is scheduled to take place in Kazan, Russia this year with Russian President Vladimir Putin as the head.

On the first day of his chairmanship, BRICS has already expanded and welcomes five new countries to the exclusive bloc.On January 1, 2024, Putin welcomed Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. As Russia kicks off the BRICS summit, the new alliance may just see its biggest-ever expansion.

As per sources, around 25 nations, including Pakistan, Palestine and many more, are looking to join BRICS this year. With a majority of the applications being submitted after the 2023 summit in Johannesburg, Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa are now hopeful for an expansion to counter the dominance of Western alliances and move towards a multi-polar world.

BRICS 2024 – Which Countries Want to Join BRICS Alliance?

1 Algeria Applied for membership in 2023
2 Bahrain
3 Bangladesh
4 Pakistan
5 Bolivia
6 Cuba
7 Kazakhstan
8 Kuwait
9 Palestine
10 Senegal
11 Afghanistan Expressed Interest To Join BRICS
12 Angola
13 Comoros
14 D.R. Congo
15 Gabon
16 Guinea-Bissau
17 Mexico
18 Nicaragua
19 Sudan
20 Syria
21 Tunisia
22 Turkey
23 Uganda
24 Uruguay
25 Zimbabwe

Of these 25, 10 countries have formally submitted their applications. BRICS 2024 Summit is likely to be held in October, where the new member-states will be announced.

BRICS 2024 Set For Expansion

The expansion of BRICS also comes at a time of a dollar decline. South African BRICS ambassador Anil Sooklal has also stated that with 25 nations looking to join the alliance, "a growing desire among developing nations to reduce reliance on the US dollar in international trade," has been reflected.

With BRICS, there is a focus on local currency trade, which poses a strong challenge to the prominence of the US dollar in international trade.

The expansion of BRICS would also pave the way for the alliance to become a strong counterweight for Western alliances such as NATO and the G7 - Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the US.

BRICS was identified in 2006 during the UN General Assembly with Brazil, India, China and Russia. With the addition of South Africa in 2010, the group became BRICS.

 

The term was first coined by Goldman Sachs Economist Jim O'Neill to draw attention towards the growth rates in Brazil, Russia, India and China. The term was coined to indicate a positive scenario for investors due to the negative outlook towards the market following the 9/11 Attacks in the United States.