Brics Plus? China moots new name as member states agree on expansion

The expansion of Brics is all but certain after member countries expressed support.

Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa support opening the bloc to new members after at least 20 countries expressed interest to join.

Most of the countries interested are developing economies, including Argentina, Algeria, Bolivia, Indonesia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Cuba, Democratic Republic of Congo, Comoros, Gabon, Iran, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Kazakhstan.

The Brics leaders will have a tough job deciding which countries will be admitted after going through a list of criteria agreed upon.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russia’s leader Vladimir Putin, who have been the biggest proponents of expansion, suggested that the new name be Brics Plus. 

This has been reported on in the past but has now been formally proposed by China at the 15th Brics summit in Johannesburg this week.

“I am glad there is growing enthusiasm in developing countries about participating in Brics co-operation and quite a number of them have applied to join this co-operation mechanism,” said Xi.

“We need to make good use of the Brics Plus co-operation format and accelerate the expansion process to bring more countries into the family, to pool our strengths and wisdom to make global governance more just and equitable.”

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, previously reported to be sceptical about the expansion, on Wednesday announced his support for the proposal.

“India fully supports the expansion of membership and we welcome moving forward on this based on consensus,” said Modi.

It would appear there was much lobbying that took place during the Brics leaders retreat in Hyde Park on Tuesday.

Brazil, which was also reported to also be wary about the expansion, with reports suggesting it was concerned this could dilute its influence, seems to now be in agreement.

President Cyril Ramaphosa said all member countries supported expansion.

“Yes, President Xi, you are in full support of the expansion of Brics as has been articulated by all members that we stand at the cusp of expanding the Brics family because it is through this expansion that we will be able to have a much stronger Brics in these turbulent times,” said Ramaphosa.

“We await the decision that will be taken by the leaders in this regard as we go on with our summit.”

It is unclear if the announcement of new members will be made at this summit or deferred to future conferences.

The leaders at the retreat also discussed using their own currencies to trade to move away from the dollar.

The Brics Business Forum could not reach consensus on this during their discussions on Tuesday, with Standard Bank CEO Sim Tshabalala saying there were strong views for and against de-dollarisation.

If the remarks of Ramaphosa and Xi on Wednesday are anything to go by, the talks on de-dollarisation went as far as technicalities.

It appears the leaders discussed how the use of local currencies would unfold, given international payment systems mainly use the dollar.

Ramaphosa said the payment systems were being used to fight geopolitical battles. This in relation to how international payment systems such as SWIFT have been pulled from Russia since its invasion of Ukraine.

“We will continue discussions on practical measures to facilitate trade and investment flows through the increased use of local currencies. This is a matter [on which] we believe further discussions need to take place, particularly among our finance ministers,” said Ramaphosa.

Xi said there should be reform of the system with the Brics New Development Bank being “leveraged” to push for changes.

“We need to leverage the role of the New Development Bank, push forward reform of the international financial and monetary systems and increase the representation and voice of developing countries.”

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