For the greater good

Economic cooperation among the members of the expanded BRICS grouping offers enormous opportunities, but there are also challenges to be overcome

As a multilateral cooperation platform for emerging economies and developing countries, the BRICS organization has borne fruits in mutually beneficial cooperation, and the expanded BRICS will face fresh opportunities.

First, the expanded BRICS has enhanced its influence and status in the global economy. After welcoming five new members, the proportion of the expanded BRICS in global GDP calculated on the basis of purchasing power parity has grown from 31.6 percent to 35.6 percent. Their proportion in world crude oil exports has soared from 15 percent to 36 percent.

Second, as representative of the Global South, the BRICS plays a key role in enhancing the voice of emerging economies and developing countries, and the influence and attractiveness of BRICS continues to grow. As a result, more and more countries are proposing to join it, fully expressing their strong will to deepen cooperation, and seek high-quality and sustainable development.

Third, the members of the expanded BRICS share strong trade complementarities and show enormous development potential. Russia, along with newly joined countries such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, are all important energy exporters, with their oil production accounting for about 40 percent of the global total. China and India are major energy consuming countries, and this complementarity will give rise to greater potential for energy cooperation. The initial "BRIC Four" were all important agricultural powers in the world, accounting for 40 percent of the world's total grain production and over 50 percent of the world's agricultural output value. Brazil's soybeans and sugar, Russia's grains and meat, and India's rice all occupy important positions in the Chinese import market. The newly joined countries such as Saudi Arabia, Iran and the UAE are also importers of agricultural products. China in turn can provide advanced and applicable agricultural technologies and referential experience for the prevention and control of animal and plant diseases and pests. Since the outset of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, food security and stable, safe and smooth industry and supply chains of agricultural products have become the common concerns of the BRICS countries.

Fourth, the development and expansion of the BRICS grouping is conducive to promoting world multipolarity, and advancing the reform of the existing international economic order and international monetary system. The expansion of BRICS has amplified the voice of the Global South in global economic governance, especially in its dialogue with the G20. The chair countries of the G20 from 2023 to 2025 are India, Brazil and South Africa respectively — all BRICS nations. The Johannesburg Declaration explicitly reaffirms the importance of the G20 continuing to play its role as the primary multilateral forum in international economic and financial cooperation, and looks forward to providing opportunities for fostering sustained momentum of reform during the presidency of India, Brazil, and South Africa.

While recognizing the enormous opportunities, the challenges the greater BRICS economic cooperation faces should not be ignored.

First, there is a huge disparity in economic development. Among the 10 BRICS member countries, the UAE boasted the highest per capita GDP, $53,700 in 2022, while Ethiopia had the lowest, $1,027 in that year. From the percentage of net borrowing positions to GDP in various countries, Saudi Arabia, Russia and China have current account surpluses, while other countries are in deficit; in terms of international investment positions, Egypt, India, and Brazil are net debtors, while the other countries are net creditors.

Second, the trade connections between each other are weak. Among the 45 pairs of BRICS member countries, only 11 groups have signed trade agreements, accounting for only 24 percent. Besides, there are no tariff reduction policies among these countries. In 2022, although the exports of BRICS countries accounted for 24.8 percent of the global total, only 14.8 percent were exported to other BRICS nations. The trade between BRICS countries accounts for only 3.7 percent of total global trade, with the five BRICS countries before expansion accounting for 3.2 percent.

Third, the cooperation mechanism needs to be further streamlined. New and old member states have different goals and demands for the organization's development, and some even have great differences, such as China and India, Saudi Arabia and Iran. In addition, Uruguay and Bangladesh, members of the BRICS Development Bank, are not members of the BRICS organization, while BRICS nations Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Ethiopia are not yet members of the BRICS Development Bank.

Fourth, some Western countries keep bad-mouthing the organization and are trying to suppress and fracture it. Some Western media amplify the internal divisions among the greater BRICS countries and undermine their cohesion by hyping up their differences. They also maliciously misinterpret the stance and nature of the organization, shaping the BRICS mechanism as a "geopolitical rival" of the G7.

Therefore, the organization still has a long way to go in strengthening communication, reducing differences, innovating mechanisms, and promoting cooperative development.

First, it should strengthen strategic communication and coordination, enhance strategic mutual trust and organizational cohesion. BRICS nations should respect each other's development paths, support each other on issues involving each other's core interests, and adhere to the BRICS spirit of openness, inclusiveness, and win-win cooperation. The BRICS mechanism is not a tool for confrontation with Western states, but a platform for cooperation among Global South countries.

Second, mutually beneficial cooperation in various fields should be deepened. The greater BRICS should give full play to the cooperation advantages in energy, agriculture and other fields; promote emerging industries and cooperate in green development, the digital economy, and artificial intelligence; further tap the potential of economic partnership and innovate the cooperation mechanism; and strengthen financial cooperation, expand local currency settlement, and build an independent regional monetary system. Think tanks in these countries should promote knowledge sharing, exchange and cooperation, and give full play to the positive role of think tanks in economic cooperation among countries.

Finally, they should seek to reform the global governance system and practice true multilateralism. China hopes to work with other BRICS countries to address global challenges, promote multilateral cooperation, practice real multilateralism, and make progress toward a more just and reasonable global governance system.

Guo Xiaoqiong is a research fellow at the Institute of Russian, Eastern European and Central Asian Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Cai Zhen is an associate research fellow at the Institute of Finance and Banking at the CASS. The authors contributed this article to China Watch, a think tank powered by China Daily. The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

Contact the editor at editor@chinawatch.cn.