‘From BRIC to BRICS Plus’: A Movement Rewriting the World Economic Order; Why BRICS Matters

Source: Malayala Manorama | Original Published At: 2026-09-15 11:52:07 UTC

Key Points

• India hosted the 18th BRICS summit at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi, with leaders including the Chinese and Russian presidents participating, and the next summit is planned to be held in China.
• BRICS is described as a grouping of 11 member countries: Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Indonesia.
• The article states that BRICS represents about 49.5% of the world's population, about 40% of global GDP, and about 26% of world trade.
• BRIC was formally created in 2006 through a foreign ministers' meeting on the UN General Assembly sidelines; the first BRIC summit was held in Yekaterinburg in 2009, and South Africa joined in 2010, making it BRICS.
• Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates became full members in 2024, while Indonesia joined as a full member in January 2025; additional partner countries are informally referred to as BRICS Plus.
• The New Development Bank was proposed during India's chairmanship of the fourth BRICS summit, formally established in Shanghai in 2015, and finances infrastructure, renewable energy, transport, water supply, and other development projects in emerging economies.
• BRICS also established a Contingent Reserve Arrangement to provide emergency foreign currency support to member countries during balance-of-payments or currency stress.