BRICS to grupa współpracujących ekonomicznie państw. Wśród jej założycieli są Rosja, Chiny, Brazylia i Indie. W 2011 roku dołączyła do nich Republika Południowej Afryki. BRICS chce budować nowy układ ekonomiczny konkurencyjną wobec państw Zachodu. Niektóre postulaty dotyczą utworzenia nowej, alternatywnej dla dolara waluty. Wspólnota chce także reformy ONZ. Blok ten chce przyciągnąć do siebie kraje tzw. globalnego południa, czyli państwa Azji, Afryki i Ameryki Południowej, które się rozwijają.

 2025.01.20 AD. 

W ostatnich latach do BRICS dołączyły Egipt, Etiopia, Iran i Zjednoczone Emiraty Arabskie. Również Argentyna miała dołączyć do tego bloku, ale ostatecznie tę decyzję zmieniono. 1 stycznia 2025 roku Białoruś, Boliwia, Kuba, Indonezja, Kazachstan, Malezja, Tajlandia i Uganda i Uzbekistan stały się z kolei krajami partnerskimi BRICS. Hiszpania nie jest członkiem tego układu i nic nie wskazuje na to, by nim była w najbliższym czasie.

wikipedia:
BRICS is an intergovernmental organization consisting of ten countries—Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates. It is considered to be a counterpart and alternative to the G7 bloc of the world's largest economies and combined represent nearly half[2] of the world's population.

The term 'BRIC' was originally identified to highlight investment opportunities.[3] The multipolar[4] grouping[5][6] evolved geopolitically[7] and geoeconomically,[7] with their governments meeting annually at formal summits and coordinating multilateral policies since the founding countries of Brazil, Russia, India, and China held the first leaders summit in Russia in 2009 under the name BRIC. Relations among BRICS are conducted mainly based on non-interference, equality, and mutual benefit.[8]

In April 2010, South Africa attended the 2nd BRIC summit, making its first appearance as a guest. The nation was added as a member and the organization was officially renamed BRICS in September 2010. The 3rd BRICS summit in 2011 was the first held with all five titular countries in attendance as members.[9][10] Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, and the United Arab Emirates attended their first summit as member states at the 2024 summit in Russia.[11] Indonesia officially joined as a member state in early 2025, becoming the first Southeast Asian member.[12][13] The acronym BRICS+ has been informally used to reflect new membership.[11][7]

Some in the West consider BRICS institutions an alternative to institutions such as those led by nations of the G7 bloc, which are among the world's leading economies.[7] Others describe the grouping as an incoherent joining of countries around increasing anti-Western and anti-American objectives.[14] Together BRICS has implemented competing initiatives such as the New Development Bank, the BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement, BRICS pay, the BRICS Joint Statistical Publication[15] and the BRICS basket reserve currency.[16] BRICS has received both praise and criticism from numerous commentators and world leaders.[17][18][19][20][21]

History
Founding

BRICS Tower headquarters in Shanghai
The term BRIC was originally developed in the context of foreign investment strategies. It was introduced in the 2001 publication, Building Better Global Economic BRICs by Jim O'Neill, then head of global economics research at Goldman Sachs and later Chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management.[22][23][24] O'Neill now regards the BRICS group as a failed project. In a 2021 article for Project Syndicate he wrote that the BRICS countries "have so far proven incapable of uniting as a meaningful global force" and felt in 2024 that "each year also brings further confirmation that the grouping serves no real purpose beyond generating symbolic gestures and lofty rhetoric".[25][26]

The foreign ministers of the initial four BRIC General states (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) met in New York City in September 2006 at the margins of the General Debate of the UN Assembly, beginning a series of high-level meetings.[27] A full-scale diplomatic meeting was held in Yekaterinburg, Russia, on 16 June 2009.[28]

The BRIC group's first formal summit, also held in Yekaterinburg, commenced on 16 June 2009,[29] with Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Dmitry Medvedev, Manmohan Singh, and Hu Jintao, the respective leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, and China, all attending.[30] The summit's focus was on improving the global economic situation, reforming financial institutions. There was also discussion of how the four countries could better cooperate in the future.[29][30] and ways developing countries, such as 3/4 of the BRIC members, could become more involved in global affairs.[30]

In the aftermath of the 2009 Yekaterinburg summit, the BRIC nations announced the need for a new global reserve currency, which would have to be "diverse, stable and predictable".[31] Although their statement did not directly criticize the perceived dominance of the US dollar (as Russia had in the past) it did spark a fall in the value of the dollar against other major currencies.[32]

2010 expansion
In 2010, South Africa began efforts to join BRIC, and the process for its formal admission began in August of that year.[33] South Africa officially became a member nation on 24 December 2010 after being formally invited by China,[34] and was subsequently accepted by other BRIC countries.[33] The group was renamed BRICS to represent the addition of South Africa to the original four BRIC members.[35] At the 2011 BRICS summit in Sanya, China, South African president Jacob Zuma represented the country as a full member for the first time.[36][37][38]

New Development Bank

New Development Bank's logo

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and other BRICS representatives during the 15th BRICS Summit in Johannesburg, 23 August 2023
In June 2012, the BRICS nations pledged $75 billion to boost the lending power of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). However, the proposed loan was conditional on IMF voting reforms.[39] In March 2013, during the fifth BRICS summit in Durban, the member countries agreed to create a global financial institution to cooperate with the western-dominated IMF and World Bank.[40] They planned to set up this New Development Bank by 2014.[41]

At the BRICS leaders meeting in Saint Petersburg in September 2013, China committed $41 billion towards the pool; Brazil, India, and Russia $18 billion each; and South Africa $5 billion. China, which held the world's largest foreign exchange reserves and contributed the bulk of the currency pool, wanted a more significant managing role. China also wanted to be the location of the reserve.[42] In October 2013, Russia's Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said that creating a $100 billion in funds designated to steady currency markets would be taken in early 2014. The Brazilian finance minister, Guido Mantega, confirmed that the fund would be created by March 2014.[43] However, by April 2014, the currency reserve pool and development bank had yet to be set up, and the date was rescheduled to 2015.[44]

In July 2014, during the sixth BRICS summit in Fortaleza, the BRICS members signed a document to create the US$100 billion New Development Bank (formerly known as the "BRICS Development Bank") and a reserve currency pool worth over another US$100 billion. Documents on cooperation between BRICS export credit agencies and an agreement of cooperation on innovation were also signed.[citation needed] The Fortaleza summit was followed by a BRICS meeting with the Union of South American Nations presidents in Brasília.[45]

Other initiatives

2024 BRICS Games in Russia
Since 2011, the National Institutes of Statistics of the BRICS group of countries (IBGE, Rosstat, the National Bureau of Statistics of China, the Central Statistics Office (India) and Statistics South Africa) produce an annual joint statistical publication to put statistical production in perspective, compare adopted methodologies and statistical results. The publication serves as a single data platform for the mutual benefit of participating countries.

Since 2012, the BRICS group of countries has been planning an optical fiber submarine communications cable system to carry telecommunications between the BRICS countries, known as the BRICS Cable.[46] Part of the motivation for the project was the spying of the U.S. National Security Agency on all telecommunications that flowed in and out of United States territory.[47] Construction of the proposed cable network was abandoned in 2015, possibly due to cost.[48]

In August 2019, the communications ministers of the BRICS countries signed a letter of intent to cooperate in the Information and Communication Technology sector. This agreement was signed in the fifth edition of the meeting of communication ministers of countries member of the group[49] held in Brasília, Brazil.


Meeting of BRICS foreign ministers on 22 September 2022
The New Development Bank plans on giving out $15 billion to member states to help their struggling economies. Member countries are hoping for a smooth comeback and a continuation of economic trade pre-COVID-19. The 2020 BRICS summit was held virtually in St. Petersburg, Russia, and discussed how to handle the COVID-19 pandemic and how to fix the multilateral system via reforms.[50] During the 13th BRICS summit, in 2021, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for a transparent investigation into the origins of COVID-19 under the World Health Organization with the full cooperation of "all countries", and Chinese leader Xi Jinping spoke directly afterwards, calling on BRICS countries to "oppose politicisation" of the process.[51]

In May 2023, South Africa announced that they would be giving diplomatic immunity to Vladimir Putin and other Russian officials so that they could attend the 15th BRICS Summit despite the ICC arrest warrant for Putin.[52][53] In July 2023, the Russian president announced that he will not personally attend the BRICS summit in Johannesburg on 22–24 August despite good relations with the South African government. Russian news channels noted that Putin will remotely participate online in all BRICS leaders' sessions, including its Business Forum, and also deliver his remarks virtually.[54]

2024 expansion

BRICS representatives at the 16th BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia, 23 October 2024
In August 2023, at the 15th BRICS Summit, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that 6 emerging market group countries (Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates) had been invited to join the bloc. Full membership was scheduled to take effect on 1 January 2024.[55][56][57]

However, the Argentine general election in November 2023 led to a change in president to Javier Milei, who had committed to withdraw the country's membership application.[58] On 30 November 2023, incoming Foreign Minister of Argentina Diana Mondino confirmed that Argentina would not join the BRICS.[59] On 29 December 2023 the Government of Argentina sent a letter to all BRICS leaders to officially announce its withdrawal from the application process.[60]

By January 2024, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates joined the bloc making BRICS membership grow from five to nine countries, while Saudi Arabia delayed its membership.[61] Saudi Arabia did not join BRICS at the start of 2024 as had been planned, and they announced in mid-January that they were still considering the matter.[62] As of April 2024, the matter is still under consideration.[63] The organizers touted the expansion as part of a plan to build a competing multipolar world order that uses Global South countries to challenge and compete against the western-dominated world order.[64] China Daily used the expansion to claim that more developing countries were interested in joining BRICS.[65]

On 24 October 2024, an additional 13 countries, namely Algeria, Belarus, Bolivia, Cuba, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Nigeria, Thailand, Turkey, Uganda, Uzbekistan and Vietnam, were invited to participate as "partner countries".[66] The partner status would allow these countries to engage with and benefit from BRICS initiatives.[67] It is unclear whether the countries in this tier have received official membership invitations.[68]

2025 expansion
On 6 January 2025, Indonesia joined BRICS officially as a full member,[69] making it the first Southeast Asian state to join the bloc, as well as the 10th member of BRICS. Jakarta's bid got the green light from the bloc in 2023, but the Southeast Asian country asked to join following the presidential election held in 2024.[12] 2025's BRICS presidency leader and Brazil's Lula announced their official entry.

Statistics
Currently, the group is dominated by China, which has about 70% of the organization's total GDP.[7] Brazil, India, and China are among the world's ten largest countries by population, area, and gross domestic product (GDP, nominal and PPP). All five initial member states are members of the G20, with a combined nominal GDP of US$28 trillion (about 27% of the gross world product), a total GDP (PPP) of around US$65 trillion (35% of global GDP PPP), and an estimated US$5.2 trillion in combined foreign reserves (as of 2024).[70][non-primary source needed]

BRICS+ accounts for 46% of the world's population,[71] and 25% of the world's landmass.[72] BRICS+ share of world GDP at purchasing power parity (PPP) is 35.6% in 2022.[71] China dominates the BRICS+ accounting for 52% of its total GDP (at PPP).[71] In 2024 the informality rate was 62% while the labour force participation was 60.8%.[73]

According to Economist Intelligence Unit, the collective size of the economies of BRICS+ will overtake G7 after 2045.[74]

BRICS+ oil production is almost 30% of global oil output.[74] The share of the Chinese renminbi in total intra-BRICS trade transactions is about 47%.[75][76]

United States and United Kingdom have been the top two investors in the bloc in terms of FDI stock in 2020.[77] Intra-BRICS trade was 614.8 billion USD as of 2022.[78] Economically the group represents $28.5 trillion.[79]

Summits
The grouping has held annual summits since 2009, with member countries taking turns to host. Before South Africa's admission, two BRIC summits were held, in 2009 and 2010. The first five-member BRICS summit was held in 2011 in China. The first nine-member BRICS summit was held in 2024 in Russia. The 2020, 2021, and 2022 summits were held via video-conference due to the COVID-19 pandemic.