There are many questions surrounding BRICS and their upcoming summit this October, particularly around expansion. Last year, the bloc invited several new countries to join the alliance, inducting four officially into the bloc this past January. Since the initial expansion into BRICS+, the coalition has garnered more interest amongst new countries worldwide. Not every interested applicant will get approval to join the bloc, so will BRICS induct any new countries this fall? If so, which nations have the best odds of joining?
Currently, BRICS consists of the five founding nations: Brazil; Russia; India; China; and South Africa. The alliance inducted Saudi Arabia; Iran; Ethiopia and Egypt into the group to form BRICS+ in January. Argentina was also invited to join but ultimately declined the invitation. Now sitting at nine members, it will be interesting to learn what that number will be come January of next year. Most likely, if the bloc plans on expanding, it will send out official invitations at or around the October Summit.
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Will BRICS Continue Expansion at the October Summit?
Several nations have been invited to the BRICS summit, putting them in a great position to receive official inductions. Other countries, especially among the ASEAN nations, are also expecting invites as well. After inviting six countries to join the bloc last August and the success that it has brought, BRICS will likely invite a further 6-10 countries to join the initiative if they follow through with more expansion.
On the other hand, there is speculation that the bloc is pausing on expansion for an unknown time. Multiple countries in the bloc are hesitant to bring in new members so soon. Furthermore, there are talks of BRICS assembling a new Parliament to handle the bloc’s plans, including de-dollarization and inter-bloc affairs. With this development, the bloc may not want to focus on expansion until the entire entity agrees on a parliamentary structure and successfully forms it.
Therefore, the decision of BRICS to expand at this year’s summit remains up for debate. There would be plenty of benefits for the bloc expanding once again, especially for the oil industry if they expand into ASEAN. We will have to wait to see what the group consensus is through this fall.