Johannesburg (dpa) – This was a big surprise. The Brics Group of developing countries announced the addition of six new members: Saudi Arabia, Iran, United Arab Emirates, Argentina, Egypt and Ethiopia will join the group on January 1, 2024, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said at the summit. Thursday announced by Allianz in Johannesburg. South Africa currently leads the confederation, which also includes Brazil, Russia, India and China.

With the inclusion of the six countries, this alliance will multiply and gain geopolitical and economic influence. The new 911 group will generate up to 37 percent of global gross domestic product based on purchasing power parity and represent 46 percent of the world’s population, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said at the three-day summit.

Mohammad Jamshidi, deputy chief of staff to Iran’s president, wrote on Platform X that joining the Brics group was a “strategic win for Iran’s foreign policy”. Argentine President Alberto Fernández celebrated the accession in a video message as a “new opportunity”.

Warning against autocrats

The question now is how the West will react to the announcement, especially to the recognition by Iran and Saudi Arabia. “The Brics states still don’t have political guidelines.

The planned expansion of the alliance, which includes four clearly authoritarian states, makes it clear that the country’s leaders do not have a strategic compass,” said economist Karl-Heinz Paqué, CEO of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation, German Press Agency. “They are fine. It’s all about attracting as many adherents to a side deemed anti-Western as possible.” Starting in January, autocratically ruled countries will make up the majority in the association, Paqué warned.

However, the western state community should “not panic” over the expansion of the Brics, said the economist. The expansion will have little impact on individual Western ties with important democratic trading partners such as Brazil, India and South Africa, Paqué said.

“Testimony that the world is governing itself”

For Caroline Kanter, co-head of the European and International Cooperation department at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, the expansion is “testimony that the world is being reorganized and a large number of countries do not want to submit to systemic conflict”. Germany and Europe must now draw conclusions on their international actions and explore how a pragmatic approach can be taken. “It is clear that we are no longer in a position to set our conditions and standards. We are expected to make an offer to be considered an attractive partner going forward,” said Kanter.

According to Russian President Vladimir Putin, expanding the alliance is “not easy”. However, as host of the 15th summit, Ramaphosa demonstrated the “excellent diplomatic art” to reconcile all positions, praised Putin, who was linked via video from Moscow on Thursday. He himself did not come to the top because, according to an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court in The Hague, he was threatened with arrest in South Africa for war crimes in Ukraine.

Other countries are also interested

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has so far criticized “Brics Plus” due to strained relations between India and China, both of which are vying for influence in their region, welcomed the expansion of the alliance.

In addition to the six new entries, many other states will soon join “Brics plus”. According to South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor, some 40 countries have expressed interest in becoming members, 23 of which are real. These include Algeria, Kuwait, Bangladesh, Venezuela and Thailand.

The aim of the confederation of countries is to form a counterbalance to Western dominance and other forums of economically powerful nations such as the G7. The Brics also want to reduce their dependence on the US dollar as a global reserve currency. A working group consisting of finance minister Brics and central bank governors will consider the extent to which the alliance can use local currencies, alternative financial arrangements and alternative payment systems before the next summit in Russia, Ramaphosa said.

UN Secretary General António Guterres, who traveled to Johannesburg for the summit, also spoke out in favor of reforming multilateral institutions. Guterres said it was critical to redesign an outdated, dysfunctional and unfair global financial architecture. The present world economic order “reflects the world of the past”.

© dpa-infocom, dpa:230824-99-937702/10