BRICS

BRICS is an intergovernmental organization comprising ten countries: Brazil, China, South Africa , Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Russia, and the United Arab Emirates. Its conceptual origins were articulated by Russian foreign minister Yevgeny Primakov in 1998, and can be traced to informal forums and dialogue groups such as RIC (Russia, India, and China) and IBSA (India, Brazil, and South Africa). BRIC was originally a term coined by British economist Jim O'Neill, and later championed by his employer Goldman Sachs in 2001, to designate a group of emerging markets.

The bloc's inaugural summit was held in 2009 and featured the founding countries of Brazil, Russia, India, and China; they adopted the acronym BRIC and formed an informal diplomatic group where their governments could meet annually at formal summits and coordinate multilateral policies. South Africa joined the organization in September 2010, which was then renamed BRICS, and attended the third summit in 2011 as a full member. Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, and the United Arab Emirates attended their first summit as member states in 2024 in Russia. Indonesia officially joined in early 2025, becoming the first Southeast Asian member. The acronym BRICS+ or BRICS Plus has been informally used to reflect new membership since 2024.

Collectively, BRICS comprises more than a quarter of the global economy and nearly half the world's population. BRICS has implemented initiatives that could reform the global financial system, such as the New Development Bank, the BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement, BRICS PAY and the BRICS Joint Statistical Publication. BRICS has also advanced de-dollarization to reduce the use of the U.S. dollar as reserve currency. In its first 15 years, BRICS has established almost 60 intragroup institutions and an extensive network including think tanks and dialogues.

Some commentators consider BRICS the alternative to the G7, and a major political force in the global international order. Others describe it as an incoherent affiliation of disparate countries centered on increasing anti-European and anti-American objectives. Nevertheless, all original five members and Indonesia are also part of the G20. BRICS has received both praise and criticism from numerous commentators and world leaders.