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BRICS

The term BRICS (an acronym for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) was first used in 2001 by Jim O’Neill, then an economist at Goldman Sachs. The strong economic growth of these countries, combined with their important geopolitical position (these 5 countries bring together almost half the world’s population on 4 continents and almost a quarter of the world’s GDP) make the BRICS major players in international economic and financial activities.

Meeting at a summit in Pretoria on Thursday 24 August 2023, the group of five countries (Brazil, Russia, China, India and South Africa) announced that they would soon be welcoming Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
« Membership will take effect on 1 January 2024 », he added at a joint press conference.

BRICS 2025 Questions and Answers Series (Part 6)

Are the New Development Bank and the BRICS Monetary Fund an alternative to the Bretton Woods institutions?

28 October 2025 - by Eric Toussaint

The necessary and legitimate disapproval of the policies pushed by the traditional imperialist powers (North America, Western Europe and Japan), followed by the announcements made by the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), has (…)
BRICS 2025 Questions and Answers Series (Part 5)

The BRICS and de-dollarisation

6 October 2025 - by Eric Toussaint

Many perceive the BRICS countries as a counterweight to the dollar-dominated monetary order. However, the facts speak for themselves: at the BRICS summit in Rio de Janeiro (6–7 July 2025), no real desire to break away from the US currency was (…)
India after the Tianjin summit and in the midst of the climate crisis – an overview

29 September 2025 - by Sushovan Dhar

On China’s initiative, the Tianjin Summit was held on 31 August and 1 September 2025, within the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO). India was invited to attend. Sushovan Dhar, a political activist and trade unionist in (…)
BRICS 2025 Q&A Series (Part 3)

The BRICS are the new defenders of free trade, the WTO, the IMF and the World Bank

17 September 2025 - by Eric Toussaint

BRICS+ is a diverse coalition consisting of 10 countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, joined in 2024 by Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Ethiopia, Indonesia and Iran). Notably some of these nations are direct allies of the (…)
BRICS 2025 Questions and Answers Series (Part 2)

The passivity or complicity of BRICS+ with imperialist wars

11 September 2025 - by Eric Toussaint

In the first part of this series entitled “Why the BRICS are not denouncing the ongoing genocide in Gaza”, Éric Toussaint demonstrated that instead of severing trade relations with Israel, the BRICS+ are actually maintaining and strengthening (…)
Why Does Historian Eric Toussaint Accuse China, India And Russia of Being "Silent Accomplices” in the Horror in Palestine?

27 August 2025 - by Eric Toussaint

While the skies over Gaza are stained red and Palestinian children die under the rubble, the emerging powers of the planet — the BRICS — prefer to look the other way. Have they become silent accomplices to one of the greatest crimes of our era? (…)
BRICS 2025 Questions and Answers Series (Part 1)

Why are the BRICS countries not condemning the ongoing genocide in Gaza?

7 August 2025 - by Eric Toussaint

The BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), which have admitted five more states (Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Ethiopia, Indonesia and Iran), met in Rio de Janeiro on 6 and 7 July 2025. Saudi Arabia was present but (…)
On a Dying Multilateralism

9 July 2025 - by Walden Bello

The recent unilateral strikes by the United States on Iran’s nuclear development sites underline the fact that multilateralism is dead, and has been so for some time. It is not only when it comes to the question of the deployment of military (…)
At the Rio Summit, signs of BRICS in retreat – just when we need serious anti-imperial muscle

5 July 2025 - by Patrick Bond

On Sunday-Monday, July 6-7, leaders from the BRICS countries will meet in Rio de Janeiro for their annual summit. Because Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will also host the UN annual climate summit in November in Belem, the BRICS (…)
BRICS nations and Israel: Hype, Hope and Helplessness

9 May 2025 - by Patrick Bond, Mariam Jooma Çarikci

Mariam Jooma Çarikci, Media Review Network (Pretoria). Prof. Patrick Bond sat down with the MRN to offer insights into the reality behind the rhetoric on Israel. He explains the deep-seated links between the SA elite ruling class and corporate (…)
Both the BRICS and Bandung revivalism need tough critiques – not quasi-cults

22 April 2025 - by Patrick Bond

How to interpret these inspiring words, by one of the most eloquent, prolific exponents of Global South politics and economic development, Vijay Prashad? The New Bandung Spirit is about Industrial Development... The original [BRICS] members – (…)
BRICS-AFRICA relations: New strategies to loot Africa

27 March 2025 - by Patrick Bond, Mohammed Sheriff

Why don’t you punish the United States—boycotting, divesting, and sanctioning the U.S. just as we do with Israel—to make it weaker for the enormous damage that Donald Trump is doing now? Those are the sorts of ideas I’m hearing, and I’m hearing (…)
Questions & answers on China as a major creditor power

21 November 2024 - by Eric Toussaint

China has been demonized by several commentators: it is said to be the main creditor of many countries of the South and to get the most of them through ruthless exploitation whereas the World Bank, the IMF, the Paris Club, that bring together (…)
The BRICS summit in Russia offers no alternative

26 October 2024 - by Eric Toussaint

On 23 October 2023, the 16th BRICS summit issued a 134-point Kazan Declaration clearly stating that the BRICS bloc is not an alternative in the interests of the people. There is such widespread disgust with the policies of these traditional (…)
IMF and BRICS: no return to Bretton Woods

22 October 2024 - by Michael Roberts

This week the IMF-World Bank semi-annual meeting takes place in Washington, US. At the same time, the BRICS+ group meets in Kazan, Russia. The coincidence of these two meetings sums up how the world economy is going in 2024. After WW2, the (…)
Rising dangers of imperial+sub-imperial partnering:

19 October 2024 - by Patrick Bond

Following the Johannesburg BRICS summit in August 2023, the new ‘BRICS+’ – whose leadership will be hosted by Vladimir Putin in Kazan from October 22-24 – now consist of not only Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, but also Egypt, (…)
‘The Blessing’ for genocide

1 October 2024 - by Patrick Bond

The Biden-Harris genocide-facilitation team is celebrating the latest atrocities from Gaza to the West Bank to Lebanon, as is to be expected from an imperialist core power bloc lacking an iota of humanity when it comes to the peoples whom (…)
Forum on China-Africa Cooperation evades contradictions at the end of the Belt and Road: Chinese investment, finance and trade controversies in Southern Africa

22 September 2024 - by Patrick Bond

Introduction The Forum on China-Africa Cooperation summit in early September follows a markedly unsuccessful Dakar FOCAC in 2021 (where Chinese investment commitments dropped radically), in turn following overhyped events in Beijing in 2018 (…)
Further thoughts on the economics of imperialism

26 April 2024 - by Michael Roberts

Back in 2021, Guglielmo Carchedi and I published a paper in Historical Materialism called The Economics of Modern Imperialism. The paper focused exclusively on the economic aspects of imperialism. We defined that as the persistent and long-term (…)
Are the BRICS and their New Development Bank offering alternatives to the World Bank, the IMF and the policies promoted by the traditional imperialist powers?

21 April 2024 - by Eric Toussaint

In recent years, the rightful rejection of the policies promoted by the traditional imperialist powers (North America, Western Europe and Japan), followed by the announcements made by the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), (…)
The BRICS New Development Bank & Sub-Imperialism: Working within, not against, global financial power

20 February 2024 - by Patrick Bond

Patrick Bond, political economist, Professor of Sociology at the University of Johannesburg, and Director of the Centre for Social Change, discusses (online) the role of the New Development Bank and its potential as a true alternative to the (…)
[Part 1] Questions & answers on China as a major creditor power by Éric Toussaint

14 February 2024 - by Eric Toussaint

China has been demonized by several commentators: it is said to be the main creditor of many countries of the South and to get the most of them through ruthless exploitation whereas the World Bank, the IMF, the Paris Club, that bring together (…)
US imperial dominance, BRICS sub-imperialism and unequal ecological exchange

10 January 2024 - by Patrick Bond, Federico Fuentes

Patrick Bond is a Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the University of Johannesburg, as well as a political economist, political ecologist and scholar of social mobilisation. He is the author of BRICS: An Anti-Capitalist Critique and Extreme (…)
Oil Jabber heard in Dubai: Our top ten reasons to dismiss the Conference of Polluters 28

16 December 2023 - by Patrick Bond, Desmond D’Sa

The most publicised sentence from the final COP28 document – the first ‘Global Stocktake’ (GST), presided over by oil man Sultan Al-Jaber and co-managed by South Africa’s environment minister Barbara Creecy – is this objective: “Transitioning (…)
BRICS+ begin to crack under geopolitical and economic pressure

28 November 2023 - by Patrick Bond

The most important question in North-South politics is whether the G20 – the Group of 20 leading state powers (plus the African Union starting in 2024) – is capable of fusing the rich-countries’ G7 (as it deservedly continues to lose credibility) (…)