Global governance reform and sustainable development are some of the agendas that the Brazilian government will seek to promote
From this Wednesday (January 1, 2025), Brazil assumes the rotating presidency of the BRICS at a time of expansion. In 2025, the block will have at least 9 new members. At the helm of the group, Brazil will seek to promote global governance reform and sustainable development with social inclusion.
With the motto Strengthening the Cooperation of the Global South for a More Inclusive and Sustainable Governance, the Brazilian government has, among the challenges, to articulate the participation of new members and continue the construction of the payment system with local currencies in trade between countries, replacing the dollar.
At the beginning of 2025, at least 9 countries join the group as members. Cuba, Bolivia, Indonesia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Thailand, Uganda and Uzbekistan were confirmed by Russia as new members, the Russian state agency reported. Tass. Russia will hold the BRICS presidency in 2024.
Professor of international law Paulo Borba Casella, from Gebrics (Brics Study Group) at USP (University of São Paulo), highlighted the Brazil Agency that one of the challenges for the bloc’s presidency is to create a dynamic for the expanded BRICS.
“There are more than a hundred working groups in the most diverse areas. It will be necessary to see how Brazil can help make Brics work in its new configuration, with ten states and a dozen more associated states. What way will this operate? No one has seen it yet and no one knows.”he pondered.
In total, 13 countries were invited to participate in BRICS. Nigeria, Türkiye, Algeria and Indonesia are also expected to confirm their participation. The inclusion of new members was defined in October 2024, at the 16th BRICS summit, in Kazan (Russia), when the bloc’s new category of partners was created.
The Itamaraty press office, in turn, did not confirm in which category the 9 countries should join the group – whether as partners or as effective members. Unlike effective members, partners can participate in meetings, but do not have voting or veto power, since Brics decisions are taken by consensus.
In 2024, the bloc had already received 5 new permanent members, reaching 10 countries. Until then formed by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, in 2024 the Brics included Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Ethiopia and Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia, despite not having signed to join the group, has participated in all meetings.
Brics Importance
The coordinator of the research group on Brics at PUC in Rio de Janeiro, professor Maria Elena Rodríguez, recalled that the last time Brazil was president of the bloc, the government did not give much importance to Brics, which should change this year.
“The previous summit under the Brazilian presidency was during the Bolsonaro government and was completely timid and unimportant. Now, Brics is much more consolidated. Brazil has to be very prepared and present concrete advances, such as in the issue of negotiations in local currencies. It is necessary to have an agenda that helps to elevate Brazil and the Latin American continent a little within the Brics”he highlighted.
Trump e Brics
The initiative to replace the dollar with local currencies led the elected president of the United States, to threaten nations that abandon the US currency by increasing taxation on products from these countries.
For USP professor Paulo Borba Casella, Trump is unable to impose tariffs on all Brics countries without harming the US economy. “He plays for the domestic electorate to try to show a position, but it’s nonsense because the international system doesn’t work just with threats”he commented.
Because of Trump’s behavior, Casella believes that forums like Brics are gaining importance. “It may be the Brics’ vocation to oppose a very petty and rude discourse from the point of view of international relations, like the Trump style”he added.
BRICS has been used as an alternative platform for dialogue and integration for countries dissatisfied with the international order led by the US and dominated by the dollar. With 10 full members, Brics represents more than 40% of the global population and 37% of world GDP by purchasing power, surpassing the economic weight of the G7, which unites the 7 most industrialized countries in the world.
Among the group’s main demands is the defense of a reform in global governance, with increased representation of countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America in bodies such as the UN Security Council, the CMO (World Trade Organization) and institutions financial institutions such as the World Bank and IMF (International Monetary Fund).
With information from .
