BRICS 2023 To Add 6 New Members

This year’s BRICS summit is being held from August 22 to 24 in Johannesburg, South Africa, with over 40 foreign leaders taking part – and of course, including South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa, China’s Xi Jinping, India’s Narendra Modi and Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Russia is represented in person by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, while President Vladimir Putin is taking part via videolink. 

 

The South African president today announced that six nations will become full-fledged members of the BRICS group of nations starting January 01, 2024, after their candidacies were approved by leaders of the current member states: Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. 

 

And Russia will assume the rotating BRICS chairmanship in 2024. The next BRICS Summit will be held in October in the Russian city of Kazan, President Vladimir Putin announced via videolink on Wednesday. 

 

If you don't already know, the current BRICS 2023 Summit sets the stage for what is potentially a seismic shift in the global economic landscape. 

 

The leaders of the five emerging economies that form BRICS came together in South Africa, not just for a diplomatic tête-à-tête, but to discuss a game-changing proposal – the complete de-dollarization of their economies. 

 

This move towards ending Dollar dominance is another significant step in their journey towards establishing a new economic order – one that's more inclusive and reflective of the emerging economies' clout. 

 

As Putin declared on Tuesday, de-dollarization is “gaining momentum” and it is “irreversible”. According to him, the share of the Dollar in export-import transactions within BRICS is declining: last year it was only 28.7%”.