On 29 August, BRICS, the economic alliance composed of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, agreed to expand its confines to the nations of Saudi Arabia, Iran, Ethiopia, Egypt, Argentina, and the United Arab Emirates at the 15th BRICS summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, starting in 2024.

With these additions, BRICS, which already governs 27% of the world population, seeks to further expand its economic gravitas, challenging the dominance of the West in that sector, and leveling out the global socioeconomic order.

Though the acceptance of these nations was agreed upon after only a few days in Johannesburg, the idea had allegedly been considered for over a year, according to South African president Cyril Ramaphosa.

While over 40 nations expressed a desire in becoming affiliated with the bloc, the admission of these specific nations represent specific aims the alliance has in neutralizing Western global power. For instance, the expansion to Iran, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia represents a concerted effort by BRICS to expand influence to Western Asia, bolstering the bloc’s

multipolarism, while incorporating nations with some of the most profitable natural oil reserves in the world.

Despite the expansion strengthening a level of economic pull, tensions between member nations are potentially exacerbated by it, too. India, for example, finds itself struggling to equate a balance between economic influence and Western allyship, an issue already present given the membership of China and Russia, and further accelerated by the addition of nations like Iran.

The addition of Ethiopia demonstrates an acknowledgment by the international community of the second most populous African nation’s rapid economic development, as well as a reference for South Africa to exert its own global relevance.

In Argentina, BRICS establishes an even stronger foothold on the Americas by adding another 46 million people to its governance, while strengthening commercial ties to one of the absolute powerhouses of the group, Brazil.

Lastly, inviting Egypt to BRICS represents the alliance’s aim to “raise the voice of the Global South,” according to Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, and to take on a massive nation in North Africa who may be a ‘sleeping giant’ of sorts. If Egypt, which is currently plagued by a lack of diversified economy and immense sovereign debts, can be pulled out of this economic crises by their admission to BRICS, then perhaps, with their grand population of 109 million, they may be later able to provide a level of extra financial power to the group, which may prove especially valuable given Egypt’s ties to both Middle Eastern members like the UAE and Saudi Arabia, and more ‘foreign’ powers like fellow members Russia and India.

On the whole, BRICS aims to be a coalition of emerging economies whose multipolarism can attack the growing issues and circumstances of today from a wider range of perspectives than those of other groups like the G7.

The emerging relevance of BRICS seems inevitable, and this expansion of six may be the push needed for the international group to finally subvert the order of global politics.