Opinion | Views of Brics as China-dominated misplaced, but US needs to focus more on group

The views of Brics as a group dominated by China with anti-US agendas are misplaced, as its key aims are meeting development needs in a multipolar world

But as Brics seeks to add new members such as Iran, Cuba and Venezuela, US foreign policy needs to focus more on the group and development-related issues

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A banner outside the venue for the 2023 BRICS Summit in, Johannesburg, South Africa. Photo: AFP

Published: 9:00pm, 21 Aug 2023

When leaders of the Brics group of large emerging economies – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – meet in Johannesburg for two days beginning on Tuesday, foreign-policy makers in Washington will no doubt be listening carefully.

The Brics group has been challenging some key tenets of the United States’ global leadership in recent years. On the diplomatic front, it has undermined the White House’s strategy on Ukraine by countering the Western use of sanctions on Russia. Economically, it has sought to chip away at US dominance by weakening the dollar’s role as the world’s default currency.

And now the group is looking at expanding, with 23 formal candidates. Such a move – especially if Brics accepts Iran, Cuba or Venezuela – would likely strengthen the group’s anti-US positioning.

So what can Washington expect next, and how can it respond?

Our research team at Tufts University has been working on a multi-year Rising Power Alliances project that has analysed the evolution of Brics and the group’s relationship with the US. What we have found is that the common portrayal of Brics as a China-dominated group primarily pursuing anti-US agendas is misplaced.

Rather, the Brics countries connect around common development interests and a quest for a multipolar world order in which no single power dominates. Yet Brics consolidation has turned the group into a potent negotiation force that now challenges Washington’s geopolitical and economic goals.