At the recent BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia, this October, the BRICS+ — a group by Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, and other countries in the Global South — announced the addition of thirteen new partner countries, expanding its alliance to ‌22 members.

This expansion will potentially bolster the group’s economic, and numerical strength and overall influence in the global economy with speculations that it could be a threat to the existing blocs like G20 and G7 which are dominated mostly by the West.

Another report suggests that the group’s expansion signals a rising global discontent and a resolve to challenge the entrenched structural advantages that developed market democracies continue to hold within a global order shaped by and for the West.

These concerns then stir a critical question: can a truly balanced world order emerge, or is it only a matter of time before BRICS+ mirrors the very systems it aims to challenge?

Well, let’s give it time.

BRICS was first created as “BRIC” in 2006 by Brazil, Russia, India and China. South Africa joined in 2010, making it “BRICS”. The group has since welcomed four new members—Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates on January 1, 2024, and is now informally referred to as BRICS+. Saudi Arabia was invited to join but has not yet officially joined, and Argentina’s new President, Javier Milei, withdrew the country from its anticipated entry into the group

The G20 group was established in 1999 as a platform for Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors to discuss international economic and financial issues. However, the BRICS+ group also includes many of the countries that are in the G20 including Brazil, China, India, Russia, Indonesia, and South Africa.

Concerns that developing countries were unable to have their interests effectively represented within the G20 and G7 leaders’ network, largely influenced by Western powers, contributed to the formation of BRICS+.

A line in this report noted: “BRICS was founded on the premise that international institutions were overly dominated by Western powers and had ceased to serve developing countries.”

Dataphyte analysis shows that the recent expansion of BRICS+ will increase the group’s numerical strength by 16.53 percentage points. With the addition of Indonesia and Nigeria, BRICS+ will be home to six out of the ten most populous countries in the world and collectively account for 56.87% of the global population.

The new membership will also raise the group’s combined share of global GDP Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) to 44.63%, up from 33.06%, based on 2023 GDP(PPP) figures excluding Cuba. 

With the inclusion of BRICS+ countries, the group’s share of global exports saw a significant rise, increasing by 9.40 percentage points as of Q2, 2024.