SHANGHAI, China: As 2024 has closed, the remarkable expansion of BRICS stands out as the biggest geopolitical story of the year.
BRICS has informally been on the horizon of world politics since the mid-2000s. But this year, the bloc’s dawn made way for a spectacular sunrise, promising a fairer multipolar world order.
It was sparked by an unprecedented jump in the bloc’s membership, partner base, and global following.
Significantly, this year’s BRICS sunrise has expedited the sunset of the US-led G7 grouping’s hegemony in world politics.
For those who missed the changing of the tide that got buried under other headlines – Gaza, Ukraine, US elections, and Syria – 2024 is a watershed year for BRICS.
Events throughout the year showed that the world order is finally shifting towards a balanced geopolitical landscape. And 2024 might have spelt the endgame for the imperialist tendencies of a small clique of US-led Western countries.
The year set the stage for an open, just, and equitable world order headed democratically by Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa – the original BRICS line-up – and the bloc’s new members and new partner countries.
Beeline for BRICS
A quick look at the timeline of events shows why 2024 is a turning point for world politics.
On January 1, four more nations – Egypt, the UAE, Iran, and Ethiopia – formally joined BRICS, pushing the bloc’s membership up from five to nine. Then October marked a whole new milestone for the grouping when BRICS invited a dozen countries to become ‘partner nations’ – Algeria, Belarus, Bolivia, Cuba, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Nigeria, Thailand, Uganda, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam.
The announcement was made on the sidelines of the 16th BRICS Summit in Kazan, Russia, which was attended by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Significantly, Türkiye – a key NATO member – was also offered BRICS partner status, while Erdogan said Türkiye’s developing ties with the BRICS group are not an alternative to its existing engagements, such as NATO membership and EU candidacy.
Confirming the offer in mid-November, Turkish Trade Minister Omer Bolat said, “As for Türkiye’s status regarding [BRICS] membership, they offered Türkiye the status of partner membership. This [partner status] is the transition process in the organisational structure of BRICS.”
Clearly, many countries lined up to engage with BRICS this year, some as full members and some as partner nations.
To add to that, it had already been reported earlier that at least 40 countries were interested in joining the bloc.
Two messages for the West
The BRICS growth story marched on after that. Two recent developments further underlined how keen the bloc is to bring positive change in a world where the imperialist shadow of the US-led West is shrinking.
One is a symbolic move to create a global alternative to the US dollar. The other is a push for international collaboration on AI development beyond the close-knit Western fold.
During the 2024 BRICS summit in Kazan, the leaders ceremoniously unveiled a symbolic ‘BRICS currency note’.
The flags of the initial BRICS members are embossed on the banknote. Although it’s not a functional currency, the unveiling marked BRICS’s spirited aspiration to explore alternatives to the dollar, often seen as a tool used by the US to dominate the world economy.
Though a BRICS currency becoming a reality appears premature, the very idea signifies the aspirations of the members to find a way out of the dollar dominance.
Amid growing talk of ‘de-dollarising’ international trade, the BRICS banknote’s unveiling surely ruffled a few feathers at G7.
Especially after October 23, when BRICS officially endorsed settling cross-border payments in local currencies. The bloc wants to create an economic system that won’t rely on US-controlled financial vehicles such as SWIFT, a Western payment mechanism.
The other development that couldn’t have gone down well with G7 occurred on December 11.
While attending a conference in Moscow on artificial intelligence, Putin said Russia would collaborate with BRICS and other nations to develop AI. The stated aim is to build an alternative to the prevailing trend of the US alone trying to dominate the new technology.
