Eleven countries, nearly half the world’s people, about 40 percent of global GDP and roughly 26 percent of global trade. Those are the figures an Ethiopian outlet, FMC, put on the expanded BRICS grouping as its 18th Leaders’ Summit opened in New Delhi on September 12.
India holds the chair this year, and the two-day meeting runs under the theme “Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability.” First on the agenda: “Inclusive Global Governance and Strengthening Multilateralism.”
The full members are Brazil, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates. They differ widely in politics, economies and priorities. What they share, FMC argues, is an interest in cooperation across the Global South and in reforming international governance.
Three seats for Africa
Ethiopia and Egypt joined in January 2024, alongside South Africa, which entered in 2011. Africa therefore has three full members at the table. Their presence, FMC says, gives African views more visibility among some of the world’s largest economies, and fits the continent’s push to diversify partnerships while pursuing industrialisation, infrastructure, technology, trade integration and development finance.
The African Continental Free Trade Area is building a bigger, more integrated African market. Closer ties with BRICS economies could complement it, the outlet says, by widening trade and investment links and helping African countries move from exporting raw materials toward making finished goods.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed travelled to New Delhi with a high-level Ethiopian delegation. Ethiopia has a large domestic market, a strategic location and expanding infrastructure, and FMC says it can bring those priorities to talks on development finance, trade, investment, connectivity, technology and governance.
Money and rules
Before the leaders met, BRICS finance ministers and central bank governors called for reform of global development finance institutions, including the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. They want governance that is more representative, transparent and accountable, and more efficient cross-border payment systems. For Africa, FMC notes, affordable development finance, infrastructure investment and a bigger share in global economic decisions remain pressing needs.
The question FMC puts to the group and its African members is how to convert wider representation into real influence. Its answer depends on trade, investment, industrial cooperation, technology partnerships and connectivity actually being built.
