Leaders of China, Russia, India and other BRICS nations gathered in Kazan, Russia on Tuesday for the blocs first annual summit since its major expansion last year. In August 2023, the group decided to invite six nations to join. Four of these nations Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates formally joined the bloc on January 1, 2024. Argentina rejected the offer and Saudi Arabia is still considering it. As Statista's Felix Richter reports, the expansion of BRICS beyond founding members Brazil, Russia, India and China as well as South Africa, which joined in 2010, aims to strengthen its influence as a global economic and political force, providing a counterweight to the G7 and other Western-led institutions.
The group seeks to promote a more multipolar world, reducing the dominance of the United States and its allies.
Speaking on the expansion of the BRICS, South African president Cyril Ramaphosa said at a press briefing last year: We shared our vision of BRICS as a champion of the needs and concerns of the peoples of the Global South. These include the need for beneficial economic growth, sustainable development and reform of multilateral systems.
As Richter shows in the chart below, the new, expanded BRICS represent roughly 45 percent of the worlds population and 35 percent of global GDP when measured at purchasing power parity.