BRIC was formed with 4 nations in 2006, Brazil, Russia, India and China. It expanded to include South Africa in 2010, becoming BRICS.
The question of possible further expansions has been raised multiple times over recent years, with many expecting this to be the year when further expansion is agreed. As of July 2023, 22 countries have formally applied to join, while South Africa claims that as many as 40 countries are interested in joining.
https://www.reuters.com/world/more-than-40-nations-interested-joining-brics-south-africa-2023-07-20/
There is no formal process for accession to membership status, although it would require unanimous agreement from the current members. The question of expansion is on the agenda for the Heads of State Summit in August this year.
The resolution of the question will depend on official BRICS statements made either during or after the event. Countries do not have to become full members immediately, so long as their future membership has been confirmed. Inclusion as observer states, associates or similar will not count.
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@kcs It wasn't an easy one to predict, but if I'm honest I was surprised to see most people betting zero. I felt that was only likely if they made a halfway step like Observer or Associate.
There does seem to have been a general bias in Western media though. Many commentators have either failed to recognize the importance of BRICS to the rest of the world, or overplayed the disagreements between members. Lula and Modi should never be misunderstood as pro-Western or anti-China.
Disclaimer, I'm no expert, just my opinion
@Nosaix Yes, exactly. I also held a few NO shares against zero new members, since they've been talking about expansion for a while now, but I didn't really expect it'd happen so soon or with so many new countries. From my understanding, BRICS appears to be mostly symbolic since there aren't actually that many institutions or binding agreements common to the members, so disagreements between them become a lot less important than they'd be at more integrated blocks like the EU or Mercosur. I'm very far from being an expert, though.
@kcs I find it more helpful to compare BRICS to the European Economic Community, in its early days with just 6 founding members. It took 35 years for the EEC to become the EU and 30 more to become the EU we know today. I doubt that BRICS will end up being like the EU, but I do expect it to grow and evolve over time. With only 5 members, it didn't really need the institutions and binding agreements, but they will start to need them as they grow. It's going to be interesting to see what it does turn into.
I think I might ask another question about next year's expansion, while people are paying attention. Short on mana today, but should be getting a bump from a question that resolves tomorrow
@Nosaix I think (from a brazilian perspective) that Mercosur is a much closer analogue to the EEC than BRICS, with it actually being an organization with the long-term goal of economic integration and a common market. BRICS just started as "here's a random group of emerging countries that might grow in the next decades". I really doubt it'll grow to have institutions much stronger than the present ones, especially since the economies of these countries don't really have a lot in common. For instance, China might be Brazil's biggest trading partner, but the EU is a close second and the US is the third. I'm also very curious to see what will end up happening, though, I could very well be completely wrong. If you create a new market on this, I'll definitely check it out.
6 new members. Listed in the official summit declaration, paragraph 91.
https://brics2023.gov.za/2023/07/05/summit-declarations/
