BRICS Invites Six New Countries to Join the Bloc

Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at BRICS inviting six new countries to join the bloc, a Chinese blanket ban on all Japanese aquatic imports, and Zimbabwe’s extended election day.

This week’s geopolitical headliner is expanding the clique. BRICS—an economic bloc consisting of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa—invited six new nations to join its fold on Thursday, capping off a successful three-day summit in Johannesburg. Starting Jan. 1, 2024, Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates will all be able to add BRICS membership to their resumes.

The move is a historic decision for the organization, further cementing it as a counterweight to Western-dominated institutions, such as the G-7, International Monetary Fund, and World Bank, and paving the way for potential future expansion. “BRICS has embarked on a new chapter in its effort to build a world that is fair, a world that is just, a world that is also inclusive and prosperous,” said South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.

But why these six nations were chosen out of the more than 40 countries that demonstrated interest in joining is complicated. Both Brazil and India had initially expressed hesitation over expanding the bloc, saying it could dilute BRICS’s power and hurt their own ties with the United States. Therefore, having nations such as the UAE and Saudi Arabia join appeased those concerns. Both Persian Gulf countries are close partners with Washington and host U.S. troops within their borders. By adding them to BRICS, the bloc would show that anti-U.S. sentiment is not required to join the alliance while, at the same time, pushing against Western influence in the Gulf. Saudi Arabia has not yet confirmed if it will join the bloc, saying it wishes to wait for further details on what membership might require.

Saudi Arabia’s membership would be significant in other ways, too. With Riyadh joining BRICS, the economic bloc would host the world’s largest oil exporter as well as its largest oil importer, China, and another key OPEC+ member, Russia. That would likely lead to greater cooperation on oil production decisions that could vastly impact the global market.

But just because BRICS may be adding two U.S.-friendly nations into the fold doesn’t mean it’s giving up on its goals to act as a bulwark against the West. Iran is a staunch foe of the United States, something it’s not backing down from anytime soon. Joining BRICS decreases Iran’s global isolation and thereby increases its leverage against the United States in any future negotiations it might have with Washington, such as over Tehran’s nuclear program.

Then there are the two African additions: Egypt and Ethiopia. Among aspiring BRICS members, greatest interest has come from the African continent, as the United States, Russia, and China all vie for a foothold there. For BRICS, securing Egypt’s and Ethiopia’s membership diminishes Western influence in a region increasingly turning to Beijing for economic relief and Moscow for arms deals. Both countries would also benefit under BRICS’s policy of noninterference, giving their governments political cover for accusations of rights abuses.

Lastly, there’s Argentina, the only Latin American country to clinch a membership invite. Buenos Aires hopes that BRICS support under its New Development Bank will boost the country’s worsening fiscal crisis, particularly as Argentina suffers from dwindling U.S. dollar reserves. The bloc spent much of the summit discussing ways to support developing nations’ economies, such as by using domestic currencies and China’s yuan instead of the U.S. dollar in trade.

• Next Door to Ukraine, Moscow’s Grip is Tightening by Jeffrey Mankoff
• Russia’s Illegal Bridges Have Ukrainian Crosshairs on Them by Oz Katerji
• Why the BRICS Aren’t Crumbling in Africa by Nosmot Gbadamosi

Rekindling old flames. In more BRICS news, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met face-to-face on the summit’s sidelines on Thursday to discuss heightened border tensions between their two countries. Despite having met 18 times between 2014 and 2019, the two world leaders have avoided direct talks in recent years after violence along their shared border escalated in May 2020. Until Thursday, their last unofficial exchange was at a G-20 dinner in Bali, Indonesia, last November.

Xi and Modi agreed to order top officials from each country to expedite the negotiation process. The 2,170-mile border remains a flash point for violence between thousands of Chinese and Indian troops as both compete for territorial authority. At least 20 Indian soldiers died during fighting in 2020; however, both sides insist no bullet has been fired in the last four decades. 

China’s sushi boycott. Beijing announced an immediate blanket ban on all Japanese aquatic imports on Thursday following the start of Tokyo releasing treated radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean that same day. The ban will include not just seafood but also seaweed and sea salt. China’s customs office warned of “radioactive contamination” in Japan’s food and agricultural products and called it a “selfish and irresponsible act.” This comes despite the International Atomic Energy Agency greenlighting the disposal process in July.

The release plan had been in the works for two years but was consistently halted over fears by local fisheries that the disposal process could hurt their businesses’ reputations. China’s announcement appears to materialize that concern. On Thursday, the state-owned Tokyo Electric Power Company released around 210 cubic meters (or 55,476 gallons) of treated wastewater. Over the next 16 days, the amount discharged will total 7,800 cubic meters (or more than 2 million gallons).

Zimbabwe’s election, continued. After an election day marred by voting station delays, Zimbabwean officials extended the nation’s general election to Thursday. The continuation will be held across 40 wards in Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare, as well as the Mashonaland Central and Manicaland provinces. The opposition Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) has warned that delays in ballot paper deliveries were part of an effort to reduce voter turnout and hurt the party’s election prospects.

Delayed openings at polling stations are not the only worries among CCC supporters. The nonprofit Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights announced that around 40 civil society activists who were monitoring the polls have been arrested. Reports of harassment and intimidation against CCC voters have stirred anger among the opposition. False fliers saying the CCC doesn’t want its supporters to vote have been seen across Harare. And the Zimbabwe Elections Support Network, an electoral watchdog, noted that delays occurred in urban areas where the CCC has its strongest support base.

Long fight ahead. A Moscow court extended the wrongful detention of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich on Thursday by another three months—just days before his pretrial detention was set to expire on Aug. 30. The court granted the extension request in a closed hearing. Gershkovich will now remain behind bars until at least Nov. 30.

This is not the first time the U.S. journalist’s pretrial detention was extended. In May, Gershkovich was also given a three-month extension close to end of the court’s deadline. Arrested in March on espionage charges, Gershkovich is the first American reporter to be detained by Moscow since the Cold War.

Chinese dissidents fleeing the mainland have been known to take an assortment of water transportation devices to cross the ocean—but a water scooter may be wildest. Last week, 35-year-old Kwon Pyong arrived at the South Korean port city of Incheon from China via the eccentric vessel to seek safety from persecution. That’s roughly 200 miles aboard a water scooter. He arrived with nothing but a life vest, a helmet, binoculars, and a compass.