A group of leading experts believe that the rise of the Global South is altering the world’s power dynamics
BRICS is emerging as a strategic alternative to the unraveling Western-led global order, experts said at the 3rd Russian-African Conference held on Monday in Pretoria, South Africa.
Speaking to RT, foreign policy analyst Sanusha Naidu described BRICS as part of a growing “ecosystem” that countries are turning to amid rising uncertainty. “When you enter into a very kind of unpredictable global architecture, countries look to see how they hedge their bets,” she said. “The way the international system was compiled and the BRICS provide that kind of ecosystem for them to think about,” the analyst added.
Fyodor Lukyanov, research director of the Valdai Discussion Club, noted that the rise of the Global South is altering the world’s power dynamics – regardless of Western preferences.
“The fact that more countries joined BRICS as members or partner states, and all those countries are from the Global South, shows that the new environment emerges in the world, environment which is not anti-Western, but which can give alternative to the Western monopoly,” he said.
BRICS was established in 2006 by Brazil, Russia, India, and China, with South Africa joining in 2010. Over the past year, the group has extended full membership to Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, the United Arab Emirates, and Indonesia. The bloc’s partner countries include Belarus, Bolivia, Cuba, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Nigeria, Thailand, Uganda, and Uzbekistan.
According to Steven Gruzd, head of the African Governance and Diplomacy Programme at the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA), demand remains strong for even more nations to join BRICS. “There are apparently up to 40 countries who wanted to join” when South Africa chaired in 2023, he said, adding that the BRICS “brand is doing well” and offers tangible benefits to new members. “There certainly is a lot of interest in BRICS,” he noted.
The 3rd Russian-African Conference, titled ‘Realpolitik in a Divided World: Rethinking Russia-South Africa Ties in a Global and African Context’, was held in Pretoria on Monday by the Valdai Discussion Club in partnership with the SAIIA.
