For the fourth time, Brazil, the only South American member, has taken over the BRICS+ chairmanship, pledging the dynamics steps to pursue and coordinate the emerging tasks outlined in the 16th Kazan Declaration and push forward the common aspirations set since its establishment in 2009. It has held the chairmanship position in 2010, 2014, 2019, and now 2025. Taking up the marathon baton this year, it explicitly implies that Brazil has inherited an expanded association, often described as an informal association with common intention to build a multipolar world order in the Global South. Furthermore, the takeover of this chairmanship reaffirms adherence to stick with the fundamental measures of protecting members’ political and economic sovereignty, and continues working towards multipolar architecture. Now awakening from its slumber to the global development realities, BRICS+ together with its partner states, as an informal non-western association, ultimately seeks to participate actively in the economic system and reduce the influence of uni-polarity, the dominance of the United States.
By description, BRICS+ is non-Western and it is largely not anti-American association. While its outlook is distinctively different from the Group of Seven, and even from any military alliance such as NATO, BRICS+ and its partner states form an evolving long-term project which realistically enjoins the Global South. Despite well-crafted systematic efforts to cripple its expansion and operations, BRICS+ is ultimately set to impact influence on the Global South, especially with its incorporated economic opportunities for member-states and their economic and political sovereignty in this challenging geopolitical world.
As far as its historical records show, Brazil, Russia, India, and China held their first leaders summit in Yekaterinburg, Russia, in June 2009 under the name BRIC. Following a renaming of the association, South Africa attended its first summit as a member in 2011 after joining the group in 2010. That however, Ethiopia, Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates attended their first summit as member states at the 2024 summit in Russia. With the second expansion, the acronym BRICS+ has been used reflecting new membership.
On 24 October 2024, an additional 13 countries, namely Algeria, Belarus, Bolivia, Cuba, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Nigeria, Thailand, Turkey, Uganda, Uzbekistan and Vietnam, were invited to participate as observer “partner countries”, observer countries that, while not officially a part of the bloc, would get some support from BRICS members. By careful analysis, BRICS+ accounts for 46% of the world’s population, majority lives in an impoverished and under-developed conditions. Brazil, India, and China are among the world’s ten largest countries by population. Thus BRICS+ ultimate aims include uplifting and upgrading the economic situation and general living standards, using the huge untapped resources, in the Global South.
In the year 2019 during its chairmanship, Brazil set multiple priorities that included – strengthening the cooperation in science, technology, and innovation, enhancement of the cooperation on digital economy, improving cooperation on the fight against transnational crime—especially organized crime, money laundering, and drug trafficking, and rapprochement between the New Development Bank (NDB) and the BRICS Business Council.
Under Russia’s chairmanship in October 2024, BRICS has become extremely popular. In addition, it has established a new model of political culture in present-day reality, and the necessity to respect the legitimate interests and achievements of countries, including that of BRICS+, in fact those countries of the Global South across Africa, Asia and Latin America. Nevertheless, BRICS+ has a broad agenda incorporating political matters, science and technology, sustainable economic development, sports and culture, and education.
In particular, we have seen the uniqueness for BRICS+ in 2024, which was marked by new members joining it and went under the motto, “Strengthening Multilateralism for Just Global Development and Security.” During the year, 250 meetings were held in various Russian cities, including over 30 ministerial-level meetings which reviewed practically all areas of cooperation, in the format of multilateral interaction, between BRICS+ countries. The practical implementation of new initiatives to foster cooperation and useful for effectively addressing existing global challenges in this first quarter of the 21st century.
Great emphasis was placed on harmonious integration of new BRICS members such as Ethiopia, Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the UAE into BRICS+ interaction. Besides that, it developed “partner-state category modalities” which was approved by the BRICS leaders. According to reports 13 states, regional players of high standing, were slated for this category. Without the least exaggeration, its culminated 16th Summit held in Kazan, capital of the Republic of Tatarstan, was attended by 41 foreign delegations (35 countries and six heads of international organizations, such as the CIS, the SCO, the EAEU, the Union State, the New Development Bank, and the UN).
Many experts, observers and researchers believe that Brazil’s leadership high brings hope, but that does not guarantee expected success especially in all the initiatives raised in Kazan’s October summit. Similarly, uttermost anti-Western criticisms would not visibly impact on achievements, it would also not bring the required sustainable economic development and growth if practical and collaborated actions are not systematically implemented. It would largely remain mere anti-Western rhetoric in the global landscape.
In practical terms, Western rules-based order has been constructed these several years through concrete well-coordinated policies and actions. Therefore, the expectation is that BRICS+ must also recognize the fundamental fact that its multi-polarity aspirations would not materialized through collective rattling of anti-Western rhetoric, instead of focusing on the BRICS+ association’s primary goals, as the new geopolitical reality necessitates engagement in implementing policies to ensure smooth evolution of multi-polarity.
Quite interestingly, South Africa (BRICS+ member) takes over the G20, Brazil leads BRICS+ this year. The G20 comprises many of the world’s largest developing and developed economies. BRICS and G20 were established to tackle pressing global economic and financial issues. Notwithstanding that, and further in comparison, BRICS+ seemingly rivals G20. In 2025, South Africa holds the responsibility to champion and strengthen the ideals of G20 and to enhance its position in the world, while Brazil with support from Russia, India and China, and its “partner states category” are emboldened with muscles to act in counter-balance to G20 and other multinational organizations. Arguably, BRICS+ usually portrays motives against growing neo-colonial tendencies, an exceptional posture to support countries in the Global South and East.
While BRICS+ continues to redefine its role in the global economic and political landscape, the G20 has grown a lot in numerical strength and collective economic power, with African Union (AU) gaining membership in 2023. A careful analysis show that BRICS is practically a G20. Some experts say BRICS is evolving as an alternative platform for global cooperation, but has little possibility to replace G20 with diverse perspectives. BRICS+ rather, more or less, duplicates G20 as South Africa (BRICS member) chairs in 2025.
As for the future, with the current geopolitical circumstances combined with tremendous challenges, the BRICS+ has solidly fixed its irreversible innovative tasks and designed various mechanisms for the moving forward. It has secured the collective determination and support to advance the level of strategic partnerships and to strengthen multifaceted relations, work on various aspects of beneficial collaboration between members. From January 2025, Brazil, whose main theme is “Strengthening Cooperation in the Global South for More Inclusive and Sustainable Governance”, has taken over the full-fledged chairmanship from the Russian Federation.
