La BRICS meeting of Kazan, the first with the new enlarged composition to 10 countries and no longer just the 5 that make up the acronym (Brazil, Russia, China, India and South Africa), was a success, from their point of view, for Russian and Brazilian diplomacy. Vladimir Putin in fact, isolated in the West by the invasion of Ukraine, has obtained a further expansion of the world front alternative to the Euro-Atlantic axis: after the entry this year of Iran, Saudi Arabia (which however sent a secondary representative to the Kazan meeting precisely because of tense relations with Tehran), the United Arab Emirates, Ethiopia and Egypt, from 2025 another 13 countries should join the now ex-emerging countries, namely Cuba, Bolivia, Turkey, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Algeria (and not Morocco as initially hypothesized), Nigeria, Uganda, Vietnam , Indonesia, Thailand e Malaysia. This is at least the list released by some press organs according to undeniable rumors, given that there was no official announcement, to avoid the embarrassment of last year, when Javier Milei's Argentina declined the invitation.
Venezuela remains out of BRICS: Lula vetoes Caracas
The hot case this year was instead that of the Venezuela, with Nicolas Maduro surprisingly showing up in person in Kazan to plead the case for Caracas' entry into the group, but in the end the Brazil's veto. Despite the absence of Lula, who remained in Brasilia due to the aftermath of a domestic accident but connected via video conference, the South American country asked Russia and China, who were pushing for Venezuela's participation, to avoid it given the tensions in the country after the disputed re-election of the Chavista leader. Brazil in fact also has close relations with the United States and Europe, and on November 18 it will host the G20 in Rio de Janeiro, with the West that will once again pressure it to condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine and to isolate Maduro.
Furthermore, the Portuguese-speaking country currently holds the presidency of BRICS Development Bank, based in Shanghai, in the person of Dilma Rousseff, former president of Brazil and Lula's protégé, who is said to have convinced Putin to confirm her even after 2025. In addition to Venezuela, also for Nicaragua, another possible candidate on the eve, nothing is being done for now, while always in that area and in an anti-US key, Cuba and above all Bolivia, a strategic ally in particular of Moscow in this phase, will enter as mentioned. The Andean country, which is experiencing weeks of great internal tensions, on the verge of civil war, is in fact an open supporter of Putin and is also for China a fundamental partner for critical raw materials, given its large availability of lithium.
New global bloc: BRICS surpass G7 and G20 in numbers
From next year the BRICS should therefore become 23by now more numerous not only of the G7 but also of the G20, of which some of them are also part, in particular China, Brazil and, albeit isolated, Russia. Important from a geopolitical point of view entry of Turkey, which is also part of NATO, while the reference block in the future seems to be the African and South East Asian one, especially Indonesia which with its 240 million inhabitants is the fourth most populous country in the world and where the new president, former general Prabowo Subianto, a staunch supporter of Putin, has just taken office. But already today, before the enlargement that will start on 1 January 2025, the BRICS group represents almost half of the world's population and over a third of the overall global GDP. Numbers that can no longer be ignored.
