South Africa gears up for BRICS Summit as China's Xi Jinping confirms to attend. What's ahead?
Bloomberg reported. Here are five things to watch as they gather Aug. 22-24 in Sandton, the business hub in the city’s wealthy northern suburbs: 1.
Expansion The primary focus of the upcoming summit is the potential expansion of the current BRICS membership, which currently includes Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. This topic, previously set aside, is now being addressed. Established in 2009 and joined by South Africa in the subsequent year, the group is now attracting interest from 23 other nations, including Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt, that wish to become members.
China's active efforts to broaden the group have been met with resistance from India, which is concerned about the possibility of the group becoming a platform for its powerful neighbouring country. Brazil, too, is cautious about straining its relations with Western nations. Nonetheless, opposition to expansion has eased, and these countries are now urging for the establishment of agreed-upon admission rules and criteria, officials told Bloomberg on the condition of anonymity.
2. Common Currency The coalition will revisit the concept of diminishing the dominance of the US dollar in international transactions, a notion that was previously discussed during past summits. This discussion has been renewed due to the increase in US interest rates and Russia's incursion into Ukraine, which led to a surge in the value of the US currency and the cost of dollar-denominated commodities.
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