Two African countries, Ethiopia and Egypt, are among six countries invited to join BRICS, the group of five major emerging market nations that met this week in South Africa.
Nigeria, the most populous country and largest economy in Africa, missed the opportunity to become a member of the bloc on its second expansion drive.
“I think it’s an indictment of our foreign policy or lack thereof,” said Cheta Nwanze, lead partner at Lagos-based risk consultancy SBM intelligence.
“We used to be very pan-African in our foreign policy, that has changed. One thing that is very clear is that most of Africa, perhaps with the exception of Nigeria and Kenya, are moving away from the west and more towards the east.
“We are sticking in the western camp without saying it explicitly. But more importantly from my own point of view, without getting the benefit that should accrue from sticking with the western camp.”
The group comprising China, Brazil, South Africa, Russia and India, agreed on “the guiding principles, standards, criteria and procedures of the BRICS expansion process”, during its three-day annual summit held in Johannesburg, President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa said on Thursday.
Mr Ramaphosa said the bloc agreed to bring on board Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Iran. The new members will be formally admitted as members on Jan. 1, 2024, and the bloc said it will admit more members in the future.
“We have consensus on the first phase of this expansion process and other phases will follow,” Mr Ramaphosa said at a media briefing.
The bloc is admitting new members for the first since 2010, and that expansion is driven primarily by China, Russia and South Africa. China and Russia face severe sanctions from Western power and the bloc is positioning itself as a counterweight to Western powers.
“This membership expansion is historic,” said Chinese President Xi Jinping. “The expansion is also a new starting point for BRICS cooperation. It will bring new vigour to the BRICS cooperation mechanism and further strengthen the force for world peace and development.”
“Great moment”
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed hailed “a great moment” for his country.
“Ethiopia stands ready to cooperate with all for an inclusive and prosperous global order,” Abiy said on Twitter.
United Arab Emirates’ President Mohammed bin Zayed said he appreciated the inclusion of his country as a new member.
“We look forward to a continued commitment of cooperation for the prosperity, dignity and benefit of all nations and people around the world,” he posted on X, formerly Twitter.
More than 40 countries expressed interest in joining BRICS and 22 formally asked to be admitted. It is not clear what factors the bloc considered in picking its six new members.
Nigeria, represented by Vice President Kashim Shettima, was amongst some 50 countries that attended the summit in South Africa.
The expanded BRICS, with the inclusion of Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern nations, is projected to account for 44% of the global economy by 2040, surpassing the G7’s projected share of 21%.
Not much gained
The grouping of emerging economies has been in formal existence for 15 years but some analysts say it has not achieved much.
“As long as it was just the five countries, they were talking about the reform of global economic governance or global governance generally … But they haven’t done very much about that,” Danny Bradlow, a professor with the Centre for the Advancement of Scholarship at the University of Pretoria, told Al Jazeera.
“Getting agreements among the five has not been all that easy,” he said. “If they expand membership, that makes it even more complicated. But it also depends on who they take on as the new members.”
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