What is BRICS and how does it pose a threat to the Western hegemony?

The news across the media has been buzzing about it, it consists of some of the world’s top-growing markets. 40 countries have expressed the desire to join. And the biggest thing is the challenge it poses to the West and the US.

BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) is a group being hailed as the club of the new cool kids of the yard. Countries with the biggest population numbers are members of it.

The group flaunts a thriving developing market ready to do trade with. This is perhaps one of the biggest advantages of BRICS.

Countries like India, Brazil, and South Africa are desperate to increase their footprint in global trade. The world’s current global factory (China) and the competitor to replace it (India) both are permanent and founding members.

Controversial Russia also is one of its founding members. The great Eastern giant has been vilified and isolated to every intensity possible by the West for the war that has been going on with Ukraine.

While the West has put draconian sanctions on Russia, the BRIC member states have been refraining from putting any sort of blockage and have planned to increase their trade with Russia.

5 days ago in the 14 group summit in South Africa, in a move to expand more political influence, BRICS officially invited 5 countries to become its new member. The officials from Saudi Arabia, UAE, Argentina, Ethiopia, and Iran have all responded positively to the invitation and are very likely to join the bloc.

This would put BRICS at the top of global trade and influence. By the 2050s, India, China, and Brazil were to become dominant economies of the world. Saudi Arabia is defiant and wants to become a part of the new planned world order. Iran with its rich and mostly untapped oil reserves could become a major fuel supplier to the members during any future fuel crisis while Russia is prepared to open its huge swaths of land for any future investments that could be made by its fellow BRIC members.

This all makes the new league a powerhouse and puts it at the gates of the West.

The emergence of such a league is likely to reduce the influence of Europe and America shortly. The US dollar is already considered evil by many nations.

A situation where the BRIC member nations decide to conduct trade in their currencies would diminish the greenback’s value by a significant margin.

This could bring havoc in the Western markets. These new powers will control the global trade routes, influence a major part of the food production, and if triggered could impose heavy duties on their exports to Europe and North America.

What we see today is a major move to shift the global order of geopolitics and trade. Even though BRICS itself consists of some oddly created alliances such as China and India have seen tensions arise due to border disputes.

But it could be a compromise these two Asian giants are willing to take for a bigger motive.

Recently the creation of a new foreign reserve currency has also been proposed by the BRIC members.

The drastically shifting global order is offering opportunities to other players to emerge and challenge the West.

The economists have already predicted in the upcoming 50 years that the West will no longer be the dominant order as new countries and alliances will be forged out of this competition.