The BRICS group of nations has just concluded its 17th annual summit in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro. But, despite member states adopting a long list of commitments covering global governance, finance, health, AI and climate change, the summit was a lackluster affair.
The two most prominent leaders from the group’s founding members – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – were conspicuously absent. One was Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, who attended only virtually due to an outstanding arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court over his role in the war in Ukraine.
China’s Xi Jinping avoided the summit altogether for unknown reasons, sending his prime minister, Li Qiang, instead. This was Xi’s first no-show at a BRICS summit, with the snub prompting suggestions that Beijing’s enthusiasm for the group as part of an emerging new world order is in decline.
Perhaps the most notable takeaway from the summit was a statement that came not from the BRICS nations but the US. As BRICS leaders gathered in Rio, the US president, Donald Trump, warned on social media: “Any Country aligning themselves with the Anti-American policies of BRICS, will be charged an ADDITIONAL 10% Tariff. There will be no exceptions to this policy.”
Trump has long been critical of BRICS. This is largely because the group has consistently floated the idea of adopting a common currency to challenge the dominance of the US dollar in international trade.
Such a move makes sense if we focus on trade figures. In 2024, the value of trade among the BRICS nations was around US$5 trillion, accounting for approximately 22% of global exports. Member nations have always felt their economic potential could be fully realized if they were not reliant upon the US dollar as their common currency of trade.
During their 2024 summit, which was held in the Russian city of Kazan, the BRICS nations entered into serious discussions around creating a gold-backed currency. At a time when the Trump administration is waging a global trade war, the emergence of an alternative to the US dollar would be a very serious pushback against US economic hegemony.
But the freshly concluded BRICS summit did not present any concrete move towards achieving that objective. In fact, the 31-page Rio de Janeiro joint declaration even contained some reassurances about the global importance of the US dollar.
There are two key obstacles hindering BRICS from translating its vision of a common currency into reality. First is that some founding member nations are uncomfortable with adopting such an economic model, in large part due to internal rivalries within BRICS itself.
India, currently the fourth-largest economy in the world, has a history of periodic confrontation and strategic competition with China. It is reticent about adopting an alternative to the US dollar, concerned that this could make China more powerful and undercut India’s long-term interests.
Second is that the BRICS member nations are dependent on their bilateral trade with the US. Simply put, embracing an alternative currency is counterproductive when it comes to the current economic interests of individual countries. Brazil, China and India, for example, all export more to the US than they import from it.
In December 2024, following his election as US president, Trump said: “We require a commitment from these countries that they will neither create a new BRICS currency nor back any other currency to replace the mighty US dollar or they will face 100% tariffs and should expect to say goodbye to selling into the wonderful US economy.” This blunt message all but killed any enthusiasm that was there for this grand economic model.
Caught in contradiction
The BRICS group is a behemoth. Its 11 members together account for 40% of the world’s population and economy. But the bloc is desperately short of providing any cohesive alternative global leadership.
While Brazil used its position as host to highlight BRICS as a truly multilateral forum capable of providing leadership in a new world order, such ambitions are thwarted by the many contradictions plaguing this bloc.
Among these are the tensions between founding members China and India, which have been running high for decades.
There are other contradictions, too. In their joint Rio declaration, the group’s members decried the recent Israeli and US attacks on Iran. Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva, also used his position as summit host to criticize the Israeli offensive in Gaza.
But this moral high ground appears hollow when you consider that the Russian Federation, a key member of BRICS, is on a mission to destroy Ukraine. And rather than condemning Russia, BRICS leaders used the Rio summit to criticize recent Ukrainian attacks on Russia’s railway infrastructure.
BRICS’s declared intention to address the issue of climate change is also problematic. The Rio declaration conveyed the group’s support for multilateralism and unity to achieve the goals of the Paris agreement. But, despite China making significant advances in its green energy sector, BRICS includes some of the world’s biggest emitters of greenhouse gases as well as several of the largest oil and gas producers.
BRICS can only stay relevant and provide credible leadership in a fast-changing international order when it addresses its many inner contradictions.
Amalendu Misra is a professor of international politics at Lancaster University.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
BRICS is about long term. Its members come from as wide variety of religions, languages and culture. It’s certainly not as homogeneous as the “West” which is mainly Western Europeans and certainly Christian. BRICS needs to do a reset, get organized and come up with solid solution as to how they’re going to stand up to financial and trade threats by the West. That takes time and they’re working on that. Who attended and who didn’t is a side show.
Brics is about what they don’t agree with, not what they agree on. Failure.
Unsurprisingly, the General Secretary showed his cowardice by avoiding this BRICS clown show. CCP is a “fair weather friend” as responsible nations across the globe are increasingly aware. It’s not too late for the CCP to renounce their unhelpful behavior and re-join the community of responsible nations. Unlikely, but one can hope….
Gold is the alternative to the USD not a pie in the sky BRICs currency. Unfortunately it’s hard to sanction gold
A derivative article that parrots pro-western taking points we’ve already heard ad nauseam. The EU is a confederation of nations featuring members who are at times at loggerheads with each other, but it still works, after a fashion. Brics is hardly different. It doesn’t need an alternative currency to destroy the dollar, it only needs to weaken it over time as it’s presently doing. Death by a thousand cuts.
Yes, Russia and Ukraine are at war, and people argue about its roots, but Russia is not trying to exterminate the people in Ukraine. Israel is undeniably conducting a war of extermination against the people of Palestine. Their officials admit as much, but Western media doesn’t cover that. It offers nothing but lies to cover the crimes of the Zionists and their supporters.
Nazis who target Jews, those are the bad ones. Nazis who target Russians or Palestinians, those are the good ones. That is Western morals in 2025 for you
No, they’d just like to remove the Palys. But no one wants them.
That’s what the German Nazis were trying to do to the Jews in Europe. The ZioNazis will have face the same fate as their German fellow genocidal criminals. Statistically, many more in the World want to get rid of Zionists than those don’t “want” the “Palys”.
So why aren’t the ‘more in the world’ want to resettle the Palys?
copium anyone?
BRICS is expanding. If they were not doing anything right, a sour Trump would not feel threatened by it. BRICS is leading a behind the scenes war against the USD, and this is great.
Expanding to include economic giant like Somalia & Pakistan
Exactly,why threaten the Brics if they pose no danger to the US? It speaks volumes to trumps fear of what de-dollarization is doing to the bond market and dollar index.
I think we all just ignore them, waste of space.
Cancer is also expanding…but that does not mean that cancer is a good or helpful thing. In fact, long term, it kills the host.
Whilst Trump is in power BRICS is playing it smart – diplomacy rather than confrontation. The trend towards the BRICS nations is accelerating as the relevance of the US fades, especially with the hypocrisy displayed when it comes to human rights and Israel. And then there is of course the economic side with China in particular outcompeting the US in many fields now and becoming the innovation nation of the world. A smart man like Elon Musk is hedging his bets accordingly.
So smart the 2 biggies dont even turn up
It doesn’t take much for you to showcase your ignorance. The Russian and Chinese leaders didn’t show up personally but sent high level reps. There must be a medical name for your condition. See a vet.
The medical condition is called reality.
You might try it sometime.
BS; it’s more relevant than the G7.
An organization like BRICS, with two of the world’s most populous nations, China and India, at war and having fought each other multiple times, bodes only misfortune and failure. Only fools believe in its success. BRICS is making itself irrelevant, and it is unnecessary and dumb of Golem Donut Trumpet to threaten BRICS with an additional 10% tariffs.
Nonsense, Britain and the US fought a major war against each other, yet they’re bosom buddies, as have the US and Japan, which today are the best of friends . Read a book, learn some facts, they’re quite useful.
As expected, expect Indian narrative to be in overdrive in undermining BRICS as it is becoming increasingly evident that India’s position is in fact of a Trojan horse.
Someone tell the author that the Global South is watching very keenly how India is acting more like a client state of Western Neocolonialism than a supposed leader of Global South beyond rhetoric and pretentions.
Equating the genocide in Gaza with the war in Ukraine is not only preposterous but downright inhuman. A position which only the ziotards, zionaz! cucks, & genocide enablers take.
Why isn’t it surprising that an Indian is also taking that position…
Just as Cambodia serves as a Trojan horse for China within ASEAN, the current political crisis in Thailand is being caused by Hun Sen, possibly at Xhit’s direction. How else could a militarily weak Cambodia provoke a militarily much more powerful Thailand? This is only possible with China’s backing. An “irrelevant ASEAN” is Xhit’s plan to claim and annex the sea between Vietnam and the Philippines.