China and Russia want BRICS, a club of five major emerging economies, to become a counterweight to the Western-dominated Group of Seven (G7), a German newspaper has reported. To this end, Beijing and Moscow are apparently seeking to expand the group, whose other three participants are Brazil, India and South Africa.
In a report on Wednesday, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung claimed that since the start of Russia’s offensive against Ukraine, and the imposition of sweeping Western sanctions, Moscow has been trying to strengthen and expand its alliances with nations in Asia, Africa and Latin America. The Kremlin has reportedly nourished the hope of turning BRICS into an alternative to the G7 for years, after it was kicked out of the former G8. According to the German paper, the Kremlin has now doubled down on these efforts.
On Monday, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova announced that two more nations, Argentina and Iran, had applied to join the group. On her Telegram channel, the diplomat noted that this happened “while the White House was thinking what to disconnect, ban or spoil in the world.”