BRICS outpacing G7 economically and demographically
Iran, Argentina and Algeria have already obtained formal candidate status
The number of countries willing to join BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation has increased dramatically to about 20 especially in the first year of Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine. BRICS is an acronym for the five countries of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - whose desire is to create a new multipolar world order. The countries willing to join include Egypt, Türkiye, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates ( UAE), Indonesia, Argentina, Mexico and a number of African countries. The main goal of BRICS countries’ cooperation remains unchanged: the formation of a new, more just and balanced world order, and providing the world’s states with ample opportunities for cooperation on a variety of issues. Interestingly, at the end of 2022, BRICS overtook the G7 countries - France, the US, the UK, Germany, Japan, Italy, and Canada - in terms of aggregate GDP. BRICS’ share of the global economy is 31.5 percent, whereas G7 accounts for only 30.7 percent. According to experts’ forecast, the upward trend will continue in the coming years. BRICS are outpacing the G7 not only economically but also demographically. There are 800 million people living in the G7 countries compared with 3.2 billion in BRICS countries. Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov maintains that in a complex international environment, this cannot but draw attention to its activities and as a result a number of countries, including major regional powers, would like to participate in this association.
Iran, Argentina and Algeria have already obtained formal candidate status. The expansion of the association would allow the potential of regional leaders to be accumulated and new ways to address pressing issues to be found. According to the Concept of the Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation, adopted on March 31, 2023, Russia enhances the capacity and international role of the interstate association of BRICS.
The process of de- dollarisation of the global economy, which has been going on for some time, has accelerated recently, also because of the situation in the USA. “We are witnessing a great imbalance in the global economy and increasing stagflation, which is leading to austerity measures. Dollars are getting smaller and smaller. In the global South, this is leading to higher prices”, the Foreign Minister warned.
He said at one time the choice of the dollar as the global reserve currency was driven by the convertibility of dollars into gold, but now it is gone. “In a world of paper money, we need to engage more actively with each other. There has been some movement in this direction with respect to trade in commodities, oil. “We have BRICS New Development Bank, which can work on a new agenda. We need to encourage these new trends and make greater use of national currencies in our trade.
This will provide more stability to the economies of our countries”. Alexey Nesterov, Press Secretary Attache at the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Gaborone confirmed to Botswana Guardian that these issues will be ironed out during the forthcoming BRICS Summit scheduled for August in South Africa. In the meantime, he confirmed that foreign minister Lavrov has been actively engaging BRICS Ambassadors ahead of the second Russia- Africa Summit to be held in St. Petersburg in July this year.