Insight: Malaysia and Thailand have revealed plans to join the BRICS, a forum for political, economic and cultural cooperation among its members and the Global South’s equivalent of the OECD. While it was originally dominated by China, the BRICS forum is much wider today, involving countries from Egypt to the United Arab Emirates, with India having a much stronger voice.
Impact: The growing appeal of the BRICS shows how keen, even desperate, emerging nations are to hedge against the US-China geopolitical rivalry. And it is fostering the emergence of regional, as well as global, trading webs. Vietnam is once again one of the world’s fastest growing economies – with GDP up 7% in its latest quarter – due to strong export growth and rising foreign investment as multinationals relocate from China. Unsurprisingly, it too is said to be keen on joining the BRICS, as is Indonesia. While this throws up challenges to the future of the ASEAN group, a multipolar world ought to be safer and more prosperous than today’s rigidly divided one.